Nigeria Oil Tanker Drivers Call Off Strike After Government Pay Deal

ABUJA, April 3 (Reuters) - Nigerian oil tanker drivers ended a strike over pay and the poor condition of the roads just hours after it began on Monday, following a government intervention, ending the threat of fuel shortages developing.

The union called off the strike "because the federal government has intervened and promised to look into the drivers' demands," said Charles Eleto, a regional chairman for Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), one of Nigeria's two major oil workers' unions.

In a meeting in the capital Abuja on Monday, the head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation agreed with NUPENG's president to increase transportation fees for the workers, said a spokesman for the firm.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu; Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Greg Mahlich)