THE NATION
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday threatened to embark on a nationwide strike should the Federal Government fail to remove the 10,699 Indian expatriates working with Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company Limited (SEEPCO) in 15 locations in the oil and gas industry in the country.
Speaking with reporters in Abuja, its President, Comrade Festus Osifo said the quota allocated to the firm was in violation of section 32 of the Nigerian Content Development Board (NCDMB) Act.
He said the Ministry of Interior was in complicity with other figures in government that granted the undue expatriate quota to the company to take over the scarce employment opportunities in Nigeria.
The president however vowed to shutdown the firm plants should the government refuse to act accordingly.
He said: “We will engage all stakeholders. But at the end of the engagement the government should act if not those plants will be shut down. We will declare a nationwide strike if nothing is done. By the time we withdraw our members the upstream will be grounded.”
Asked to reveal the timeline for the industrial action, Osifo however noted that since there are no Nigerians working in the jetties, manning strategic positions, the association has communicated to its members in the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) who play critical roles in lifting operations.
He added that “as we speak today, their operations are already under lock and key. They cannot lift.”
He said since PENGASSAN members handle 90 per cent of upstream operations, it can easily ground activities in the industry with an industrial action.
Earlier, he said the press conference was called as a continuation of the struggle that the association started last week regarding the firm…
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