The long-running leadership crisis within the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) took a dramatic turn on Wednesday at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where the union’s National President, Williams Akporeha, firmly denied claims that NUPENG was exploiting the police and the judiciary to settle internal disputes.
Akporeha, who appeared as the second prosecution witness in the trial of 21 former PTD leaders facing charges of attempted murder, breach of peace, and assault, maintained that the union remains one indivisible body and was not fractured into rival camps, as suggested by the defence.
“It is not correct that one group is using the police and court against another to settle union matters. NUPENG is one body with about 150 branches, and PTD is only one of them. The issue of one group against another does not arise,” Akporeha told the court during cross-examination by defence counsel, Chief Christopher Oshomegie (SAN).
The case, marked FCT/HC/CR/042/2023, has its roots in a violent confrontation on November 1, 2023, when Akporeha, NUPENG’s Secretary-General, Olawale Afolabi, and the newly elected PTD National Chairman, Augustine Egbon, were allegedly attacked by the defendants at the union’s national secretariat in Utako, Abuja.
Tracing the crisis, Akporeha explained that the first PTD election in June 2022 produced Lucky Osesua and others, but was later nullified by the National Industrial Court in Yenagoa. A court-ordered rerun conducted in Ibadan by NUPENG was also challenged in Abuja, with the court again striking it down.
He alleged that while NUPENG supervised another Ibadan election in compliance with judicial orders, some defendants staged what he described as an “illegal election” in Abuja, producing parallel executives.
“Those who claimed to have emerged in Abuja never turned up in Ibadan where the court directed us to conduct the election,” he said, insisting that the Ibadan process produced the only legitimate PTD leadership.
In vivid detail, the NUPENG President recounted how he and other national officers were confronted at the secretariat by Osesua and his allies.
“They stopped us from driving into the premises. Later, they mobilised youths armed with gallons of petrol and other weapons. They stormed the hotel where we lodged, broke doors and windows, and physically attacked us. I was on the phone with Egbon when I heard his door smashed. He screamed. I saw him dragged from the fourth floor and beaten to a pulp,” Akporeha said.
According to him, it took the intervention of the then Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Utako to rescue them and restore order. The police subsequently arrested the accused persons.
All 21 defendants, including Osesua, have pleaded not guilty to the charges, arguing that the matter is rooted in union politics rather than criminal conduct.
Justice Yusuf Halilu adjourned the matter until November 10, 2025, for continuation of hearing.