Refineries: NUPENG Maintain Stand on Strike

People patronising second-hand clothes at Wunti market in Bauchi last Friday

The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) says it has not shelved its proposed plans to go on strike over the planned sale of the country’s refineries.

A statement from the President of NUPENG, Igwe Achese, on Wednesday in Lagos, said the union’s position was still that the decision to privatise the four refineries was hastily taken.

It said it would therefore still be resisted by NUPENG.

“The attention of the union was drawn to some stories that NUPENG has suspended the strike.

The union states that the report is erroneous and full of distortion of facts,” the statement said.

It added that NUPENG members in NNPC and its subsidiaries had however embarked on daily prayer sessions, calling for God’s intervention.

The statement quoted Achese as calling “NUPENG members to intensify on the prayer sessions, which is a prelude to the nationwide strike coming up this week”.

It added that the meeting scheduled by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, would be futile if the Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, was not involved.

It would be recalled that NUPENG and PENGASSAN in December 2013 had threatened to embark on strike this month.

The two unions had said this would be if the Federal Government failed to reverse its decision to privatise the country’s four refineries.