NUPENG threatens FG over plan to sell Port Harcourt refinery to Oando

The Federal Government has been asked to choose between withdrawing its decision on the sale of Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company to Oando Plc or risk a shut-down of the oil sector

The threat was made by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) who accused the Federal Government of ignoring the recent resolution by the Senate that the sale of the refinery should be put on hold.

NUPENG president, Dr. Igwe Achese, who voiced out the position of the union, held that the agreement the Federal Government and Oando entered into cannot be acceptable as it was done without the involvement of stakeholders.

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He further frowned that the host community, workers, local government and state government, among others were excluded in the agreement.

“We have continued to wonder why the sale of public assets like the Port Harcourt refinery is being done in secret in the way and manner they are doing it. Knowing that there are stakeholders in this sector, and these stakeholders are also taxpayers, you don’t just take any decision at will.

“Among all these stakeholders are the workers, who are the operators of these assets. You are mortgaging their future. The worse thing is that we are increasingly beginning to see that some of the policies and the way the policies are being thrown at us look like we are in an autocratic system of government, where the norms and principles of democracy do not matter,” Achese said.

 

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