. . . Challenges PENGASSAN, NUPENG to Publish Audited Accounts

The management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has described the declaration of strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) as a bully and guerrilla tactics meant to hold Nigerians to ransom for selfish agenda.

Dismissing as tissues of lies, the claims of mass sack made the PENGASSAN in its statement on Saturday night upon which it premised the call on its members to embark on strike, Dangote Refinery said what the Association has embarked upon is tantamount to act of terror.

These were detailed in a statement by the company during the weekend made available to Biztellers.

While highlighting the possible consequences of the strike on hapless Nigerians, Dangote Refinery management in a statement titled “Lawless PENGASSAN: Its lies and Terror Tactics”, said PENGASSAN could not justify its decision to hold over 230 million Nigerians to ransom by cutting off their essential supplies of petroleum products–kerosene, cooking gas, petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, amongst others.

It stated that the resolve by the Association to bully tactics could not justify the threat to the lives of persons, including infants and aged persons, who need the petroleum products and attendant necessities for their life-support systems in the hospitals, in care homes, and the Nigerian workers whose lives and livelihood are to be put at risk with the strike.

The Dangote Refinery management, therefore, called on the Federal Government and its agencies, as well as all Nigerians, to stare down the PENGASSAN and put a stop to the machinations and blackmail tactics of its oligarchs and sponsors.

“Assuming that there are Dangote Refinery workers or ex-workers who are affronted by or aggrieved over the organization’s decisions, they surely have remedies that they can pursue in accordance with their employment contracts. 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. PENGASSAN’s terrorist tactics must be defeated by the Nigerian people. It is in our interest to so do.

“PENGASSAN must not be allowed to persist in its bullying tactics against Nigerians. The Nigerian security and law enforcement agencies must provide security for the Nigerian workers in the oil and gas sector – all the facilities, installations and offices – so they can continue to provide their essential services to the Nigerian nation without let or hindrance by or from PENGASSAN and its co-travelers”, the refinery management stated.

The statement read “In our release, we pointed out that “over 3,000 Nigerians continue to work actively in our Petroleum Refinery” and that “we continue to recruit Nigerian talent through our various graduate trainee programs and experienced hire recruitment process”.

It also averred that the PENGASSAN has not joined issues with Dangote Refinery on these factual assertions; rather it continues to peddle the falsehood that Dangote Refinery has sacked “all Nigerians working in the refinery and” presumably hired “over 2,000 Indians” to replace them. That is complete falsehood. We also stated in the release that there is an “on-going reorganization within” the Dangote Refinery which has resulted in the discharge of “a very small number of staff” and that the “exercise is not arbitrary” but is being carried out “in the best interest of the Refinery”.

“These facts have not been rebutted by PENGASSAN neither has its oligarchs attempted to meet with Dangote Refinery to verify the truth. Rather it continues to peddle the falsehood that we have sacked “over 800 members” of PENGASSAN “for joining PENGASSAN”.

Assuming that was a fact, which it is not, would that justify the terror and guerrilla tactics that the Association is now unleashing on Nigerians? Would that 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? Would that justify threatening the lives of persons, including infants and aged persons, who need the petroleum products and attendant necessities for their life-support systems in the hospitals, in care homes, etc. Would that justify the bully tactics of putting the livelihoods of Nigerian workers – the very people that the PENGASSAN falsely professes to represent – and their extended dependents, at risk? And when we talk about Nigerian workers whose livelihoods are at risk, this goes well beyond the workers of Dangote Refinery and encompasses all Nigerian workers, including all the PENGASSAN members “across all offices, companies, institutions, and agencies” who are being commanded by the Association’s fiat, to down tools simply because the oligarchs within the Association believe it is fanciful to cut their noses to spite Dangote Refinery.

“This is a bully tactic that the Nigerian State and people must not succumb to or allow. As the Association rightly pointed out in its Release, “no man or company” – and we must add, or Association, be it PENGASSAN or any other – “no matter how highly placed” or entrenched, “is above the law and cannot be called to order by the national institutions”.

The oligarchs in the PENGASSAN have proved themselves to be terrorists and have turned the Association into a bully organization. It is time they be called to order. Indeed, over time, the Association has consistently proved itself as serving interests other than those of Nigerians and Nigerian workers, and a few illustrative examples would suffice:

“When in 2007 the Federal Government sold its moribund refineries in Port Harcourt and Kaduna to Blue Star Consortium led by Dangote Group at US$750million, it was this same bully Association, PENGASSAN and its co-travelers one of whom is the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (“NUPENG”) that vociferously sabotaged the process. It is now obvious to everyone that the FGN’s decision at the time was the right one and that PENGASSAN and NUPENG ignominiously wrote their names on the wrong pages of history. (See Annexures 1 and 2)

“More recently, PENGASSAN with its co-travelers loudly celebrated the purported rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery. Nigerians now know that the purported rehabilitation was a ruse and that PENGASSAN was knowingly celebrating a scam on Nigerians. PENGASSAN has also been in the forefront of opposing the amendment of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 in a manner that would allow the Federal Government to restructure the equity holdings of some of its upstream Joint Venture assets and thereby provide much-needed liquidity for the Government while injecting private-sector funding and expertise for the management of the assets. This is reminiscent of the inglorious role of the same PENGASSAN and its allies in aborting the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries in 2007.

“Dangote Group is the highest employer of labour in Nigeria and the highest contributor to the tax revenues of Nigeria and its sub-nationals. 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 10 years and list out its corporate responsibility activities within that timeframe?

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“Dangote Refinery is a national asset that must be protected by the Nigerian State and its people. It must not be threatened by the PENGASSAN oligarchs and their co-travelers. 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. The economic recovery of Nigeria must not be derailed and/or reversed by PENGASSAN. 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”.

“We conclude by reasserting the opacity and lack of transparency in the operations of PENGASSAN as evident in its failure or inability to publish its audited accounts over the years. Why has the watchdog which the Association and its partner, NUPENG, profess to be, failed these several years to publish their respective audited accounts and be accountable to their members and the Nigerian people?

“We challenge both PENGASSAN and NUPENG to publish for the Nigerian public, within 7 (seven) days of this publication, their respective 10 (ten) years audited accounts, failing which they should permanently bury their heads in shame.”