The leadership of the two unions in the petroleum industry have risen in condemnation of the incessant attacks on their members and threatened that it would call out all oil workers from installations in the volatile Niger Delta.
The duo of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have already handed out a deadline to the federal government on the mater, following the recent attack on employees of Mobil in which expensive company properties and work equipment were destroyed.
Even though, government had already appealed to the unions to have a rethink, lamented that their members who are engaged in legitimate livelihood are often victims of violent attacks by militants without assistant or protection from government security agencies.
The threat was contained in a joint statement that was issued by the unions after their meeting with the minister of petroleum, Dr Rilwan Lukman and the junior minister, Mr Odien Ajumogobia. In the statement, they condemned rising insecurity within the Niger Delta region.
“The essence of our meeting is to seek your attention and intervention to some of the key challenges of interest that beset the industry as follows: Security and Safety of Oil Workers and Infrastructure in the Niger Delta region”, the statement pointed out, even as it stresses that the oil workers were eagerly awaiting the outcome of various interventions and expressed doubts about government’s ability to arrest the situation.
The workers also expressed shock at the ease with which bandits who according to them, masquerade as liberation fighters gain access into sensitive oil and gas installations across the length and breadth of the Niger Delta.
“It is queer that our refineries are unsafe even as Joint Task Force was expected to be on constant patrol of the plant. We are at the point where we may not be able to guarantee the Honourable Minister of further Oil production in the threatened Mobil locations. This may be extended to other Oil Operations across the Niger Delta Regions as situation shall demand.
“We are worried about the failing obligations of Government to guarantee adequate security measures to curb the menace of attacks on Oil workers, installations and facilities”, the statement reiterated and added disclosed that the earlier deadline for the mass withdrawal has been suspended as a mark of respect for the minister of petroleum.
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