The nationwide scarcity of petrol
worsened on Wednesday as oil workers embarked on a full-scale industrial
action, which led to the shutdown of the corporate headquarters of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Abuja as well product depots,
mega filling stations and other critical facilities.
The workers, under the aegis of the
Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the
Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, who gathered at the
corporation’s headquarters early in the morning, shut the NNPC in
protest against the restructuring of the national oil firm by the
Federal Government and immediately embarked on a nationwide industrial
action.
The Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had on Tuesday evening announced that
President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the restructuring of the NNPC
into seven new divisions, comprising 20 subsidiaries.
But the oil workers said they were aggrieved because they were not carried along in the entire process.
One of our correspondents gathered from
some marketers in Lagos that the poor fuel supply situation was
exacerbated by the directive of the unions to their operations personnel
at the depots in the metropolis not to issue tickets for loading of
products to the marketers.
A marketer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said, “The petrol supply situation in Lagos and its environs
became worse on Wednesday because of the directive by PENGASSAN and
NUPENG to their operations men not to process tickets for the marketers
to load the product.
“The supply problem before now has not
been addressed. Over 80 per cent of the petrol in the country is being
supplied by the NNPC. Out of the seven depots doing throughput, only
about three had the product on Wednesday and marketers could not load
from them because of the directive by the unions.”
It was gathered that officials of the
NNPC who ought to supervise the discharge petrol from vessels into the
storage facilities of Aeito, Capital Oil, Ascon, Nipco, Eden Petroleum,
MRS and Folawiyo in Lagos did not report for duty in compliance with the
directive of the unions.
In Abuja, the main entrance to the
corporation’s headquarters was blocked early in the morning. Employees
of the corporation and its subsidiaries, whose offices are located in
the NNPC Towers, were turned back by the protesting union members.
According to them, the shutdown of the NNPC is nationwide.
The Group Chairman, NUPENG, NNPC Branch,
Mr. Odudu Udofia, told journalists in Abuja that the protest by the
workers was against the unilateral decision of the minister to
reorganise the corporation without carrying along any of the
stakeholders, especially the two trade unions in the oil and gas
industry.
He stated that workers were suspicious
of the reorganisation as nobody could explain its direction, adding that
“this even became clearer with the consolidation of operational units
that have heavy financial transactions under the office of the GMD.”
Similarly, the Group Chairman,
PENGASSAN, NNPC Branch, Mr. Salah Abdulahi, said the unions had earlier
expressed their opposition to the reorganisation when it was first
raised by the minister during the annual Oloibiri Lecture on March 3,
2016.
Asked if the unions were not concerned
about the effect of the strike on the already bad state of fuel supply
across the country, Abdulahi said, “The fuel scarcity problem has been
there before we embarked on this strike, we did not cause it.
“However, we know this strike will
increase it; that’s the only way to let the government know that we are
not comfortable with the unbundling or restructuring that it has done at
the NNPC.”
Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday directed Kachikwu to appear before it over the restructuring of the NNPC.
The minister, who also doubles as the
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, was asked to appear before the
Senate Joint committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream, Downstream and
Gas) to explain the Federal Government’s action.
A letter signed by the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Tayo Alasoadura, and
sighted by our correspondent, stated that the upper legislative chamber
was shocked by the news of the unbundling exercise.
The letter read in part, “Shocked by the
announcement, three committees overseeing the industry wish to invite
the minister to appear before them to brief them on this critical
decision in a meeting scheduled for Thursday.”
Alasoadura said the the action was taken
“without recourse to the Act establishing the NNPC and approval by the
Senate of Nigeria.”
The Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, also told
journalists that the announcement of the unbundling of the corporation
had generated issues that the Senate was looking into.
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