The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has suspended its planned nationwide strike scheduled to commence today.
The decision to suspend the strike comes on the heels of the intervention of the Director of the State Security Service, SSS, Lawan Daura, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu.
PENGASSAN had earlier alleged anti-labour practices against some of its members by some indigenous oil companies, one of which it identified as Neconde Energy Limited.
The strike action scheduled to formally commence after 11:59 p.m. today followed the group’s peace meeting last week with Mr. Kachikwu, which ended in a deadlock.
Prior to the meeting, the oil workers had issued a 72-hour ultimatum to government to intervene over allegations of anti-workers’ practices perpetrated against some of its members working in Neconde Energy Limited.
The umbrella body of senior workers in the oil and gas industry had accused the management of Neconde Energy Limited of wrongful termination of the employment of some of its workers who belong to PENGASSAN.
However, despite shelving the strike, a close monitoring earlier in the day revealed that the scarcity is biting harder on Nigerians as most filling stations are either out of stock, not selling or overburdened with queues from customers who are in a haste to get their tanks filled.
Details later…
