NAPO Boss Escapes Attack In Bonny

The Chairman of National Association of Plant Operators (NAPO), an affiliate Union of Trade Union Congress (TUC), Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, Comrade Harold Benstowe over the weekend escaped been lynched by some thugs allegedly hired by a rival association, “lifting and Earth Moving Equipment  Operators Association” in the area to kill him.

The incident occurred recently at the Bonny Vocational Centre during a recruitment interview organised by the Oversea Technical Services (OTS), a maintenance company with the Nigeria Liquidfied Natural Gas (NLNG) in conjunction with the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre.

The attack was not unconnected with the on-going contention and struggle of supremacy existing between the National Association of Plant Operators (NAPO), led by Comrade Harold Benstowe and the lifting and Earth Moving Equipment Operators Association led by Daniel a Pollyn over who controls the employment of plant operators working in various companies in the area.

The Tide learnt that while the National Association of Plants Operators (NAPO), was registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), in 1990 and became a member of the Nigerian Trade Congress (TUC) operating its zonal branch in Bonny, the Lifting and Earth Moving Equipment Association is an association allegedly formed by the Bonny Council of Traditional Rulers as  a rural association to NAPO.

A source who spoke to The Tide under condition of anonymity disclosed that the contention between the two groups in Bonny had shorted for long time, adding that those who formed the rival association were former members of NAPO who lost the leadership control of the union.

The source further disclosed that the Lifting & Earth Moving Equipment Association was  masterminded by the Bonny Council chiefs as an umbrella body to conduct the recruitment employment for plant operators in connivance with the Bonny recruitment centre.

Narrating his odel to the Tide on the attacked, the chairman of NAPO accused the Bonny Council of Traditional Rulers and the Integrated Recruitment Centre for masterminding the attacked to kill him because his resilience against the extinction of the union in the area.

Comrade Benstowe said he had consistently opposed the move over the employment ??? in the are as well as his opposition against employment racketeering in the Bonny Employment Bureau led.

He told The Tide that on that fateful day at the Bonny Vocational Centre where an interview for employment members that short change of the  union in the recruitment exercise and questioned why the bureau gave all the twenty-five jobs slots to the rival association.

He averred that immediately the protest was made, the OTS and the Bonny Employment  Bureau Officials announced the postponement of the recruitment interview, the mob allegedly hired by the other group attacked him with matchets and weapons lift him with the pool of blood.

The NAPO chairman averred that it was the intervention by the Nigerian Navy ratings who came to his rescue and saved him from been a dead man.  He called for investigation into the threat to his life.

When contacted on phone, the chairman Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre, Mr Opuna Allison and Chief Sodienye Jackmay in-charge of Employment Matters at the Bonny traditional rulers council denied any attack on the union leader allegation masterminding threat to life of the NAPO chairman as a strange word.

Also speaking on phone, the SSS Director in-charge of Bonny, Mr Williams said he was not in Bonny when the incident happened hence he can not give account of it.

Efforts made to reach the police comment on the matter proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPPRO), DSP Ben Ugwuegbulam refused to pick his calls when contacted, while the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in-charge of Bonny central police station Supro Abuja said he was on annual leave.