NUPENG Calls Off Strike

Culled from Sahara reporters

Members of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers(NUPENG) have called off their three-day strike that began on Monday. The announcement of the strike’s end came yesterday.

NUPENG said the strike, which resulted in traffic lock-down in such major cities as Abuja and Lagos, was necessary to draw attention to issues related to its members’ jobs.

NUPENG had announced the commencement of the strike and directed all fuel depots to shut down in compliance on Monday. Its president, Achese Igwe, remarked in the  statement  that the issues that prompted the action included the high level of insecurity in the country, the bad state of the roads in the country, and an increasing level of oil theft in the littoral states. Mr. Igwe listed other issues as abuse of the expatriate quota by oil firms and non-compliance with stipulated principles regarding recruitment of casual workers in the oil sector.

In a statement Tuesday, the union announced the end of the strike. Speaking to our correspondent this morning, Tokunbo Korodo, the chairman of the south-west chapter of NUPENG,said the decision to suspend the industrial action followed the intervention of Andrew Yakubu, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as well as the Petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

However, NUPENG warned that its members would adopt a more serious and prolonged labor action without warning if the government failed to address the concerns raised by the union.

Severe traffic logjams were witnessed in Lagos yesterday as a result of long queues at fuel stations. The same experience had led to traffic gridlock in Abuja after NUPENG depot outlets stopped loading fuel on Monday.

Nigeria is in the grip of labor unrest, with university lecturers embarking on a strike over the government’s failure to implement critical agreements reached several years ago.