Dangote Refinery Accuses PENGASSAN of Bully Tactics
…Challenges Unions to Publish Accounts
By Patience Ikpeme
The management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has accused the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) of employing “bully and guerrilla tactics” by declaring a strike action, describing it as an attempt to hold over 230 million Nigerians to ransom.
In a strongly worded statement titled “Lawless PENGASSAN: Its Lies and Terror Tactics”, the refinery dismissed the association’s claims of mass sack of Nigerian workers as “tissues of lies” and said the decision to call out its members on strike amounted to an “act of terror.”
Dangote Refinery said, “We challenge both PENGASSAN and NUPENG to publish for the Nigerian public, within seven days of this publication, their respective ten years audited accounts, failing which they should permanently bury their heads in shame.”
The company maintained that over 3,000 Nigerians were actively employed at the refinery and that it continued to recruit through graduate trainee programmes and experienced hire recruitment processes. It insisted that only “a very small number of staff” had been let go due to an internal reorganisation carried out “in the best interest of the refinery.”
It accused PENGASSAN of deliberately spreading falsehood that all Nigerian workers had been sacked and replaced with foreigners. “That is complete falsehood,” the management declared.
The refinery argued that even if, hypothetically, 800 union members had been dismissed, that would not justify “holding over 230 million Nigerians to ransom by cutting off their essential supplies of petroleum products – kerosene, cooking gas, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, amongst others.”
Dangote Refinery further stated that the strike action would threaten the lives of Nigerians, including infants and the elderly who depend on petroleum products for life-support systems in hospitals and care homes. “This is a bully tactic that the Nigerian State and people must not succumb to or allow,” it said.
The management urged the Federal Government, security agencies and Nigerians to resist what it described as the “machinations and blackmail tactics of PENGASSAN oligarchs and sponsors.” It said, “PENGASSAN’s terrorist tactics must be defeated by the Nigerian people. It is in our interest to so do.”
The company argued that aggrieved workers or ex-workers had avenues to seek remedies under their contracts and that the association had no right to interfere in such matters. “PENGASSAN should not and must not be allowed to incite those employees or ex-employees neither should it interpose itself between them and Dangote Refinery,” the statement read.
Dangote Refinery accused PENGASSAN of a history of obstructing national economic interests, citing its opposition to the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries in 2007 and its role in celebrating what it described as the “purported rehabilitation scam” of the Port Harcourt Refinery in recent years. It also faulted the union’s stance against amending the Petroleum Industry Act to restructure government equity holdings in joint venture assets.
“Over time, the Association has consistently proved itself as serving interests other than those of Nigerians and Nigerian workers,” the statement added.
The refinery described itself as the highest employer of labour and largest contributor to tax revenues in Nigeria and challenged PENGASSAN to account for its financial stewardship. “What comparable social responsibility has PENGASSAN, with its billions of naira in monthly check-off dues and subscriptions, lived up to? Can it publish publicly its account for the last ten years and list out its corporate responsibility activities within that timeframe?” it asked.
Concluding, Dangote Refinery said the facility was a national asset that must be protected from sabotage. “The threatened action by the Association against Dangote Refinery threatens the economic recovery and energy security of Nigeria. We must not allow the Association and its co-conspirators to sabotage and imperil the economic recovery and energy security of the country. To paraphrase the perverted and abused sayings of the Association, no Association, not even PENGASSAN, is bigger than our country. An injury to Dangote Refinery by PENGASSAN, is an injury to all.”
The refinery insisted that the failure of PENGASSAN and its partner union, NUPENG, to publish their audited accounts over the years had exposed what it described as “opacity and lack of transparency” in their operations.
