By Kazeem Akande
ALHAJI Azeez Abiola, a National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) official, on Tuesday offered free petrol worth N25 million to 5,000 commercial tricycle (keke) operators in Lagos.
The free petrol worth N25 million was in commemoration of the 64th Independence Day.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise took place at Rain Oil filling station Kola, Alagbado, Fatgbems filling station Ayobo-Ipaja and NNPC filling station at Command area in Abule area in Lagos State.
NAN reports that more than 5,000 commercial tricycle operators benefitted from the 2024 Independence Day free N5,000 at the three designated filling stations within Alimosho Local Government Area in the state.
Abiola, the Chairman, Tricycles Owners and Operators of Nigeria Lagos Branch C under NURTW, while giving his remarks, appreciated God for giving him the privilege to embark on such a humanitarian service.
“We are using this opportunity to support our members to celebrate the 64th Independence Day meaningfully.
“We all know how the present economy of the country is today, that’s why we are assisting our members generally with free fuel to celebrate the independence and for them to have sense of belonging.
“We are doing this generally to the operators, initially we were targeting our members within our zone but we later realised that some operators came from Agege, Ifako Ijaiye, Ojokoro and even Ikeja.
“We are surprised on how the operators turned up for the exercise from other areas but we are very happy for making people happy.
“Actually, we targeted 5,000 beneficiaries but as the exercise goes on, we realised that more operators were trooping in from various zones to benefit from the gesture,” he said.
Mr Solomon Udoh, one of the beneficiaries, thanked the union leader for the gift.
Udoh addws that the free fuel would go a long way to assist his daily operation.
“The free N5,000 fuel will help my daily delivery because am still operating on instalment,” he said.
Wasiu Tijani, another beneficiary from Agege branch, commended the union leader for his assistance at the present economy challenges.
“We really appreciate this surprise free fuel, in fact this is first time of receiving this kind of gesture from any union leader and I know it will go a long way to boost our transport business,” Tijani said.
Another beneficiary, Azeez Adekunle, said he would forever remain grateful to the union leader for the gift.
“Many of us are operating under tension and fear as a result of high cost of fuel, but this will help us to cushion the effect of petrol cost on our operations today,” Adekunle said. (NAN)
