Controversy Trails Purge In NNPC

The recent mass sack as
part of the purge going on in the Nigerian National  Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is not going down well within  some quarters and stakeholders in the oil and gas sector as groups are urging President  Buhari to halt the process.
The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum  and Natural Gas  Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have  opposed the approach, saying it would  not  help the oil and gas sector.
In a joint statement signed  byNUPENG Presdient, Mr Igwe Achese, his PENGASSAN counterpart, Mr. Francis  Johnson, as well as scribes of both unions, the groups said though they fully support the fight against corruption, but the fight should not be turned against  the workers  who the government  swore to protect.
NUPENG and PENGASSAN accused the new Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, of not carrying the unions along in the process.
They said the mass sacking of workers was diversionary and urged the MD to focus on how to recover the stolen billions in the sector.
“The ongoing exercise portends a great danger in the oil and gas sector, if workers are meant to bear the brunt of government’s current action where the fight against corruption is now used as an act of vindictiveness  against workers,” they said.
The group doubted if the ongoing sack was the idea of President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the MD’s action as acts of cover-up through sack of innocent workers.
“We are, therefore, calling on Persident Buhari to call the GMD to stop the ongoing sack-action  in the corporation and set up  a team to review his action for justice, equity and equity”, it said.
It noted that efforts to reach the President were being blocked by his protocols.
According to the union, its defence of members, the workers, was a direct challenge to job security and also a contradiction to the promise by Buhari on job creation.
In its reactions, a group, Niger Delta People’s Solidarity Forum has also written to President Buhari opposing  the process of the purge.
According to the letter, “those who are public officers with high integrity and have contributed immensely in promoting good  governance  in public office were crucified with those who have cases to answer”.
It said, the group is pained that  patriot and dedicated Niger Delta citizens that are some of the best brains in the world in their  chosen fields were some of the victims of this bias and unjustifiable mass sack.”
The letter  which was signed by the group’s  National President, Comrade George  Utomhinm, Secretary General, Moses Efeakpokrire, PRO Miss  Lynda Magada, and Co-ordinator for  South-West, Chief  Andrew Elijah, the forum urged Buhari to reverse  some of the sack in the interest of the nation.
Another group, the Isoko Vanguard for Change, a political pressure group from Delta State said the mass sack would not yield  the needed result as it would cover up the frauds that stink in the system.
The group urged the new MD to  retrace his steps saying the sack had, to a large extent, displaced people of the zone from the corporation.
The group particularly called on President Buhari to prevail on the new MD so as  to save the sector  from the exit of the best brains being sent packing.
However, NNPC Friday decried attempts by a section of the media to politicize the current  appointments and retirements in the corporation by imputing ethnic coloration to it.
NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, in a statement  said all action’s so far  taken by the corporation, were in line with the extant  rules on federal character and also  done with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.
It explained that the recent  promotions, appointments and retirements are all part of restructuring exercise aimed at repositioning the corporation into a lean,  efficient, profit-driven  organisation and  called on Nigerians to discountenance  any report aimed at denigrating the ongoing  re-organisation in the corporation.

Chris Oluoh