A Nigerian fuel union called off Friday's planned nationwide strike over the government's non-payment of fuel subsidies after fraud investigations into the country's gasoline subsidy scheme, Reuters reported. Fuel stations in the capital Abuja have been shut this week as the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) held back supplies to the government hub as a warning ahead of Friday's planned action. However, the threat of widespread fuel shortages in Africa's second-biggest economy was averted, albeit temporarily, when NUPENG called off the strike. Nigeria's Ministry of Finance said this week that it will not pay fuel marketers who have been found to have committed fraud, and government officials have claimed that it is the fuel companies who are driving the strike threat. The finance ministry on Wednesday distributed a list of 25 local oil companies that it says collected a combined 61.33 billion naira ($388.29 million) in subsidies for fuel they never delivered. A high-level politician said on Thursday that some companies had started to repay some of this money, suggesting that the government and fuel firms are reaching a compromise. President Goodluck Jonathan had attempted to remove fuel subsidies in January, but more than a week of protests and strikes prompted their partial reinstatement. The protests, which began about fuel prices but turned into an anti-corruption drive, prompted a wave of investigations into the subsidy regime and a parliamentary report uncovered a $6.8 billion fraud - one of the biggest graft scams in Nigeria's history. -- SPA
