PH
Organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have shut down the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) nationwide.
This follows Tuesday unbundling of the corporation.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources , who doubles as the NNPC Group Managing Director, Ibe Kachikwu, had on Tuesday announced the creation of seven independent units , namely downstream, gas and power, refineries, ventures, corporate planning and services, and finance and accounts.
Members of staff and management of the corporation arrived their various offices on Wednesday morning to discover that they could not gain entrance following the total strike.
The Group Executive Committee (GEC) of the NUPENG and PENGASSAN had shortly after the Minister announced the creation of the new departments met to discuss the development.
At the end of the meeting, GEC sent this message to all members: “The GEC of NUPENG & PENGASSAN at its meeting of 8th March 2016, which started at 10:00pm has extensively discussed the pronouncement of the GMD on NNPC unbundling. We observed that the GMD/HMSP totally disregarded due process and failed to engage stakeholders. Hence, from midnight today, All NNPC location will be shut down completely until further notice. Further directives will be communicated accordingly.”
The strike action will definitely compound the worsening fuel situation in the country as petroleum products will not be lifted by NUPENG.
