PENGASSAN has rejected Vice President Kashim Shettima’s criticism of its recent strike over the sacking of workers at the Dangote refinery, insisting it will repeat the action if provoked again.
ABUJA — The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) on Monday fired back at Vice President Kashim Shettima for condemning its recent strike against the Dangote refinery, saying the union’s actions were justified and would be repeated if similar dismissals occurred.
Vice President Shettima, speaking at the opening of the 2025 Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, had described billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote as “an institution” and cautioned labour unions against “holding the whole nation to ransom because of a minor labour dispute.”
Reacting, PENGASSAN President Festus Osifo said, “Of course the nation is bigger than PENGASSAN, the way it’s bigger than Dangote and the Presidency. We have a mandate to protect the jobs of our members, that we will discharge whenever the need arises.”
Osifo stressed that if the refinery repeated the sack of unionised workers, “our approach will be exactly the same.”
The strike, which shut down critical oil and gas facilities last week, followed allegations that Dangote refinery sacked 800 union members. The company denied this, saying only a few employees involved in “sabotage” were dismissed as part of a reorganisation.
Following federal intervention, PENGASSAN suspended its strike, but the effects lingered, with cooking gas prices still around N2,000 per kilogram on Monday.
Meanwhile, protesters in Kaduna accused PENGASSAN of sabotaging local refining, while Dangote Group commended President Bola Tinubu’s “timely intervention” in restoring calm to the energy sector.