NARTO warns members against cargo diversion, smuggling, bunkering, others 

The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) on Tuesday, warned its members against cargo diversion, bunkering and smuggling of petroleum products saying, the national body will not hesitate to hand over members who are caught in such acts to law enforcement agents.

The National President NARTO, Alhaji Othman Yusuf Lawal gave the warning in Lagos, during at the second quarterly National Executives Council (NEC) and States Chairmen Joint  Meeting in Lagos.

Othman reiterated that truck owners under the name NARTO must warn their drivers and assistants to adhere strictly to the constitution adding such illegalities will not be accepted by the national bodies.

According to him, the association has a name to protect stressing that transporters are involved in the movement of cargoes and must desist from such practice for the benefit of the association and the nation.

He added that the association has internal mechanism to monitor drivers who engage in such illegal practice.

“What I said is very clear. There is need for us to ensure that our members are not involved in petroleum products and bunkering and diversion of petroleum products  across the country, because all these three things are done by trucks and the trucks are driven by drivers who are our members.

“If we avoid these things, it is in our own interest because we have no reason to be involved in all these bad things because it is affecting us and the economy.

“We are devising internal mechanism which we will not make public,we will not fold our hands and watch, we will ensure enforcement, we will identify culpable members and hand them over to the government for appropriate punishment.

On issue of extortion of truck drivers by state security agencies, he added that talks are ongoing to engage the government from the Southwest to end the anomalies noting that such practices affect business and investments.

“On the way forward to tackle extortion in the South West, we have direct interface with the state governments. We have tried to do that in the past but did not work out but we will intensify efforts to interface with the state governments.”