Wednesday, October 1, 2025 - Kogi West Senator, Sunday Karimi, has warned the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, to respect the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, saying the union’s directive to withdraw services affecting the Dangote Refinery risks damaging the economy and deterring investors.
On Saturday, PENGASSAN’s General Secretary, Lumumba
Okugbawa, ordered members working at field locations to withdraw services from
6 am on Sunday, September 28.
The directive covered control-room and panel operations,
outfield personnel and other services across companies, agencies and
institutions, and specifically called for the immediate suspension of processes
involving gas and crude supply to the Dangote Refinery.
Reacting, Karimi condemned the move as “economic sabotage,”
saying the action exposed what he described as ulterior motives that threatened
the oil sector.
In a statement he signed, Karimi said: “No investor will
invest in any country where a union leader can easily destroy a
multibillion-dollar private investment without cause. No serious nation will
even allow such unions to survive.”
The senator urged the Federal Government and law enforcement
agencies to intervene, arguing that the withdrawal of gas and crude supplies
would cripple the $20 billion refinery and reverse gains towards
self-sufficiency in fuel supply.
He noted that, despite reports of 800 disengaged workers,
Dangote has said more than 3,000 Nigerians continue to work at the refinery,
alongside numerous indirect employees, suppliers and contractors who depend on
the plant.
Karimi contrasted the situation at the refinery with other
privately run sectors where union activity is limited.
He noted that, after deregulation, many private investors
discouraged unionism and introduced attractive compensation systems; as a
result, unions such as NUBIFE lost influence in the financial sector.
He recalled that when Chief Gabriel Igbinedion founded the
first private university in 1988, he prohibited staff membership of ASUU, and
that ASUU remains absent from Nigeria’s private universities to this day.
Union activity is also restricted or disallowed in other
industries such as aviation, tourism and electricity, where private investors
are dominant.
“An employer has the right to refuse the existence of trade
unions in their businesses, and a staff member has the right to walk away from
any employer who doesn’t want unionism,” Karimi said, asking why Dangote
Refinery should be treated differently.
The senator also pointed to past resistance by unions to
private-sector involvement in refining.
He said that when former President Olusegun Obasanjo
prepared to sell the moribund Port Harcourt refinery in 2007 and Aliko Dangote
agreed to buy it, unions and labour groups opposed the sale, prompting Dangote
to build his own facility instead.
Karimi contrasted that privately built refinery — now one of
the world’s largest single-train refineries — with government-owned refineries
that have continued to incur huge maintenance costs.
He accused some unions of continuing to profit from levies
and dues while members work in or benefit from moribund state plants.
PENGASSAN’s directive has drawn strong criticism from
politicians and sections of the public on social media.
The union said the action formed part of its industrial
strategy in the statement signed by Okugbawa.
The Federal Government has not yet announced a response to
calls for intervention.
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