The National Association of Road Transport Owners have threatened to stop all activities on Monday owing to the high cost of operations.
The National President of the Association, Alhaji Yusuf Lawal Othman, disclosed this in a statement to the press in Abuja.
Lamenting the high cost of operation, the president said: “What we spend on operation is more than what we get in total, both in local and bridging”, stressing that members have been operating at a loss and that they could no longer cope with it.
The NARTO president added that since it was no longer sustainable to accommodate the losses, they have decided to down tools and suspend all operations from Monday, until federal government looks into their plight.
“We cannot continue to operate at a loss. Most people have parked. A lot more are going to park”, adding that the members have unanimously decided to stop all operations from Monday.
According to him, all efforts made by the association to get the sympathy and intervention of all the stakeholders in the federal government and industry appear to have fallen on deaf ears, and as a result yielded no results.
He stressed that on several occasions the association had written letters to the Chief of Staff to the President Tinubu, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Director-general, Department of State Services, DSS, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, Group Chief Executive Officer and the Marketers to no avail.
The NARTO president recalled that the freight rate which was in force since the time of President Buhari was still subsisting, pointing out that the N32 Lagos to Abuja freight rate was implemented when the exchange rate was N650/$1 and is still retained now that the dollar is N1,615/$1.
“ By virtue of the rate of the dollar, every consumable has increased, but the fright they are paying us has remained the same,” he said.