NUPENG, PENGASSAN reject NNPC’s purge

Oil workers under the aegis of Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call the new Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, to order over the rate of termination of appointments.

The two unions in a statement jointly signed by the President, PENGASSAN, Comrade Francis O. Johnson, President, NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese, General Secretary, PENGASSAN, Comrade Bayo Olowoshile, and the acting General Secretary, NUPENG, Comrade Joseph Ogbebor, advised Buhari to review the GMD’s action for justice, equity and fairness.

The unions expressed reservations over the ongoing approach of government to the reform programme in the oil and gas industry without carrying the two unions in the sector along in the process. The unions said, “While we are fully in support of the fight against corruption, the fight itself should not be turned against workers whom Government swore to protect.

The ongoing exercise portends a great danger in the oil and sector, if workers are meant to bear the brunt of government current action where the fight of corruption is now used as an act of vindictiveness against workers. “The ongoing exercise does not show any act of fighting corruption and blocking any leakages.

We dare the new GMD of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu to recover the stolen trillions of naira in the sector than retiring and sacking of innocent workers. We see the action as an act of cover up. We are quite sure that the ongoing action is not the idea of our dear President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.”

Both unions argue that further to their social partner’s status, they are strategic players in all spheres and areas of the industry’s operation, saying that they had been making persistent effort to reach out to Mr. President on the issue but being kept in the dark by those in charge of protocol.

“However, our commitment to protect and defend job security and welfare is paramount and cannot be sacrificed. We shall approach as it becomes expedient whatever government steps and actions that are viewed as dialectical or capable of suppressing our missions and objectives as a labour movement,” he said.