Skip to main content

Go back to work, PENGASSAN tells members

FILE PHOTO: President Muhammadu Buhari with PENGASSAN and NUPENG leaders at a recent meeting in Abuja

FILE PHOTO: President Muhammadu Buhari with PENGASSAN and NUPENG leaders at a recent meeting in Abuja

The Nigerian union representing oil workers has agreed to suspend a strike that some feared would lead to fuel shortages and disrupt crude production, a petroleum ministry official and another at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Wednesday.

The strike consisting of about 10,000 members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), including refinery workers and office staff, began on Thursday over issues that included oil sector reforms and pay.

Nigeria’s energy sector has been hit hard by a prolonged drop in global crude prices and a spate of attacks by militants on oil and gas facilities in its southern Niger Delta region over the past few months, which briefly pushed oil production to 30-year lows.

The officials, who asked to remain anonymous, said that an agreement to suspend the strike was reached after talks between trade union leaders and government officials, including Labour Minister Chris Ngige, ended in the early hours of Wednesday.

The NNPC official, who was involved in the negotiations, said a resolution was signed by the two parties and the industrial action had been suspended. PENGASSAN officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the suspension.

Last week NNPC cautioned members of the public against any form of panic buying. There have been no signs of fuel shortages so far.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Court grants Fani-Kayode N50m bail

Fani-kayode sandwiched by EFCC officials Justice James Tsoho of the Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday granted a N50m bail to former spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode. Fani-Kayode was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a five-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N26m. Fani-Kayode is the sole defendant in the fresh charges numbered, FHC/ABJ/CR/140/2016. The EFCC accused the defendant of diverting 26 million Naira allegedly received from the ONSA while Sambo Dasuki was in office. The anti-graft agency also accused him of handling the said N26 million without going through financial institution as required under the Money Laundering Act. The embattled former minister is already facing 17-count charge of money laundering before the Lagos Division of the court, along with a former Finance Minister; Nenadi Usman, Danjuma Yusuf and a firm; Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited. They were charg...

Pope not involved in Colombian peace deal- Vatican

Pope Francis Pope Francis has turned down a request to play a role in the peace deal between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group. The Vatican in a statement issued on Wednesday in in Vatican City said that an invitation was sent to his Holiness in early August to appoint a representative to participate in the committee that selected the judges for the talks. The statement said that though Pope Francis supported the peace process, he, however, reiterated that he would not get involved in Colombian peace deal. It said that Pope was praying for the enlightenment of the hearts and minds of those who were called to promote the common good of the Colombian nation. A deal was announced last week, putting an end to five decades of internal conflict between government forces and the FARC rebels. The agreement, which needed to be ratified through a referendum in Oct. 2, would entail setting up a special court to grant amnesties or pu...

Man docked for defiling 9-year-old girl

magistrate-court A 33-year-old man, Godwin Otobo, was on Monday docked at a Surulere Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.For allegedly defiling a nine-year-old girl, ‎Otobo, who lives at No. 10, Borrow Pit St., Sangotedo-Ajah area of Lagos, was said to have defiled the underage girl whose parents also reside in the same compound. The Prosecutor, Sgt. Anthonia Osayande, told the court that the accused committed the offence at about 9.00 p.m. sometimes in September. “The accused defiled the girl in the night when she was fetching water.‎ “The offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011,’’ Osayande told the court. The accused pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge of defilement. Ruling on a bail application filed by the accused, Chief Magistrate Ipaye Nwachukwu, granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum. She said one of the sureties must be a property owner in Lagos State, while the other must be a civil servant on grade...