The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has described the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, as insensitive to the plight of workers in the oil and gas industry.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the 3rd Triennial Delegates Conference of PENGASSAN branch in the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited (PPMC)in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, said that the Petroleum Minister does not care about the workers in the oil and gas sector.
He stated that PENGASSAN will support the PPMC branch’s decision to withdraw the services of members if the government cannot find the workers either dead or alive, who were attacked by hoodlums and vandals when they went to repair the damaged pipeline at Arepo, Ogun State.
“The minister who has the oversight over the oil and gas industry does not care about the workers. Since the minister assumed duties, she has never met with the workers. Every entreaty and efforts to meet with the minister and tell her our challenges and problems has failed because the minister is not ready to listen.
“We have made several correspondences to the minister to let her know our plights but nothing has been done and neither has the minister called us to hear us out.
“We, including our sister union, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), have also tried to reach the minister through the Minister of Employment, Labour and Productivity, but it yield no result because of the insensitivity of the Petroleum Minister”, he added.
Ogun also berated the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Andrew Yakubu, for not trying to meet the two unions, PENGASSAN and NUPENG, since he assumed office some months ago.
“I cannot imagine despite all the problems in our industry, the GMD has not bothered to call the unions to discuss with us our problems. He should remember that without the workers, there would be no NNPC and without NNPC, there is no GMD,” he said.