The management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has challenged the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to publish their audited accounts spanning the last ten years.
This comes in the wake of PENGASSAN’s declaration of strike over alleged mass sack of workers at the refinery, an allegation the company has dismissed as “false and mischievous.”
In a statement issued on Sunday and titled “Lawless PENGASSAN: Its Lies and Terror Tactics”, Dangote Refinery accused the unions of attempting to hold Nigerians to ransom with what it described as “bully and guerrilla tactics.”
“What PENGASSAN has embarked upon is tantamount to an act of terror,” the company said. “The union cannot justify holding over 230 million Nigerians hostage by cutting off essential supplies of petroleum products.”
The refinery warned that the strike, if enforced, could jeopardise energy security and worsen the hardship of ordinary citizens by cutting off supplies of kerosene, cooking gas, petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel.
Dangote management further queried the unions’ stewardship of members’ contributions, noting that billions of naira are collected monthly through check-off dues without any transparent account of how the funds are utilised.
“With billions of naira collected every month, what has been the social responsibility record of these unions?” the statement asked. “It is time PENGASSAN and NUPENG published their audited accounts for the past decade to show accountability to their members and to Nigerians.”
The company also accused the unions of a pattern of obstructing reforms in the oil and gas sector, recalling their roles in opposing the sale of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries in 2007 and resisting recent amendments to the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
Reaffirming its commitment to Nigeria’s economic recovery, the refinery said the Dangote project must be safeguarded from what it termed “union sabotage.”
> “No association, not even PENGASSAN, is bigger than Nigeria,” the management declared. “An injury to Dangote Refinery is an injury to all.”
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