The President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Williams Akporeha, on Wednesday, narrated before a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama how he narrowly escaped being lynched by a mob of tanker drivers and thugs in Abuja.
Akporeha, who appeared as a prosecution witness before Justice Yusuf Halilu, alleged that 20 tanker drivers, accompanied by armed youths, stormed his hotel with weapons and gallons of petrol following a disputed union election.
According to him, the attackers destroyed hotel doors and windows before forcefully breaking into rooms where he and other union leaders were lodged.
“I was on the phone with the new PTD National Chairman, Augustine Egbon, when I heard the door to his room broken and his screams. He was dragged from the fourth floor, beaten to a pulp, and nearly killed. Shortly after, they broke into my own room,” Akporeha told the court.
He said it took the swift intervention of the Utako Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and his team to rescue him and other officials of the union from being set ablaze.
The defendants — including a former PTD National Chairman, Lucky Osesua, and 13 others — are facing a five-count charge of attempted murder, assault, and breach of peace filed by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation. They have all pleaded not guilty.
Akporeha dismissed suggestions that the case was an internal union vendetta, insisting that NUPENG remained “one indivisible body” with over 150 branches, of which Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) is just one.
He traced the violence to a leadership tussle within the PTD branch after the June 2022 election in Ibadan, which produced Osesua and others but was later nullified by the National Industrial Court.
While NUPENG supervised a fresh election in Ibadan as directed, some members allegedly staged another “illegal election” in Abuja, leading to factional claims to leadership.
“The Ibadan election was the legitimate one, but those who organised the illegal Abuja election kept parading themselves as executives. They even occupied the PTD secretariat unlawfully. That was the root of the violence,” he said.
Justice Halilu adjourned the trial to November 10 for further hearing.
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