Dangote hits PENGASSAN: You are serial saboteurs, serving oligarchs, not Nigerians

By Udeme Akpan

The absorption of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has berated the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), accusing the national of decades-long sabotage of Nigeria’s lipid and state assemblage and serving the interests of its leaders alternatively than mean Nigerians.

In a connection issued astatine the weekend, the refinery described PENGASSAN’s latest directive to chopped crude lipid and state supplies to the installation arsenic different enactment of economical sabotage designed to inflict untold hardship connected Nigerians.

“Indeed, implicit time, the Association has consistently proved itself arsenic serving interests different than those of Nigerians and Nigerian workers,” the connection declared.

Dangote recalled that successful 2007, erstwhile the Federal Government sold its moribund Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries to Blue Star Consortium, led by the Dangote Group, for $750 million, it was PENGASSAN and its ally, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), that sabotaged the deal. “It is present evident to everyone that the FGN’s determination astatine the clip was the close 1 and that PENGASSAN and NUPENG ignominiously wrote their names connected the incorrect pages of history,” the institution said.

The refinery besides faulted the union’s relation successful the much-publicised rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, describing it arsenic a “ruse” which PENGASSAN “knowingly celebrated contempt being a scam connected Nigerians.” The connection further accused the national of opposing amendments to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) that would person freed up national liquidity and attracted private-sector backing into Nigeria’s upstream lipid ventures.

Beyond argumentation obstruction, Dangote Refinery accused the relation of mismanaging billions of naira successful yearly check-off dues to bankroll the “lavish lifestyles” of its leaders, without accountability to members. By contrast, the refinery highlighted its ain grounds of economical contributions wrong a abbreviated period, citing roadworthy construction, idiosyncratic training, the instauration of thousands of Nigerian jobs, and a compensation operation that “outdistances the champion successful the Nigerian lipid and state industry.”

“The Dangote Group is the highest leader of labour successful Nigeria and the highest contributor to the taxation revenues of Nigeria and its sub-nationals. What comparable societal work has PENGASSAN, with its billions of Naira successful yearly check-off dues and subscriptions, lived up to?” the connection queried, challenging the national to people its audited accounts for the past 10 years. “Can it people publically its relationship for the past 10 years and database retired its firm work activities wrong that timeframe?”

The refinery insisted that PENGASSAN’s caller directive to retreat services and chopped disconnected indispensable substance supplies, including but not constricted to petrol, diesel, kerosene, cooking state and aviation substance was reckless, lawless and dangerous.  It said the bid is not astir protecting Nigerian workers, but it is astir a cabal of oligarchs weaponising hardship against implicit 230 cardinal Nigerians.

“In the process, it (PENGASSAN) cares small if astatine each astir the unbearable hardship and panic it would thereby inflict connected each Nigerians, including but not constricted to the proviso of indispensable services successful our hospitals and aesculapian facilities, schools (nursery and close up to tertiary and probe institutions), exigency services, communications facilities, proscription systems, etc,” it said.

Dangote Refinery called connected the Federal Government and information agencies to measurement successful instantly to support the installation and the nation’s vigor security, stressing that the national indispensable not beryllium allowed to “bully Nigerians into chaos and economical sabotage.”

The station Dangote hits PENGASSAN: You are serial saboteurs, serving oligarchs, not Nigerians appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.