Apparently disturbed about the continued detention of two of its members by the Police in connection with a jammed lift at the headquarters of African Petroleum (AP) Plc few weeks ago, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has written a petition letter to the Inspector General of police; Ogbonna Onovo seeking the immediate release of two of its arrested members.
According to the Union, two of its members; Messrs Celestine Anonobi and Moses .O. Abidemi were arrested two weeks ago and have since been in the police custody for allegedly masterminding the unfortunate lift jam which happened at the premises of AP Oil Company in Lagos during the visit of its chairman Mr. Femi Otedola to the complex.
The secretary general of NUPENG, Comrade Elijah Okuogbo in the petition which was sighted by Shipping Position Weekly correspondent lamented that his members are being denied bail and are currently being held beyond permissible limit under law. According to him this action is tantamount to breach of their right as citizens of Nigeria.
The labour union in the petition says that the Inspector General should be guided by “the legal perspective which presumes an accused person innocent until proven guilty”. It argued that its two members “have their fundamental rights before the law not to be detained beyond twenty four hours and they are currently being denied their freedom of movement and access to legal representation”.
The union demanded that the two members be granted bail and if not they should be arraigned before a court of law if there is evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubts that they were guilty and truly involved in the unfortunate incident, it also warned that the union will not be used as a sacrificial lamb to circumvent the crisis of board room politics in AP Plc.
The two NUPENG staff: were arrested on the 13th of August 2010 over the trapping of the lift against some staff and visitors of the company and have since been whisked away to police detention.
Meanwhile NUPENG says that the accusation that the two arrested members are lift operators is totally incorrect as they are mere electricians who are unfortunate enough to be on duty on the day of the incident. The petition to the IG also reads in part “we were informed that they were arrested in Lagos, but the case was later transferred to Abuja for investigation while the suspect are still held in detention at the time of writing, we therefore appeal to you to use your good offices to address this demand in the interest of industrial peace and harmony in AP Plc operations”
However, Shipping Position Weekly gathered from reliable sources that the occupants of the lift had ignored the security warning about the capacity of the lift and it was also confirmed that this is not the first time such incident would be happening, sources told our correspondent that the situation has been recurring for the past six months, but that the facility manager of the company refused to do anything about it.
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