We won’t accept sales of nation’s refineries, PENGASSAN warns politicians

THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has warned politicians and other stakeholders who are already propagating sales of the nation’s refineries that such move is not acceptable to Labour as well as Nigerian workers and would not be achievable.

Apparently referring to the declaration by Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he would sell the NNPC if voted into power, the union said the intended sales of the refineries have been propagated will not be accepted.

Speaking at the 5th NNPC Group Executive Council (GEC) Triennial Delegates Conference held in Abuja, President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson, thereby, called on Federal Government to hasten works on the rehabilitation of the refineries.

Comrade Johnson said: “We strongly appeal to the Federal Government to hasten work on the rehabilitation of the refineries as conflicting pronouncements are creating more confusion. We urge the government to fast-track the rehabilitation of the refineries so that the intended sales have been propagated in certain quarters will not be accepted.

“PENGASSAN position from time immemorial has been the NLNG Model and for the model to be accepted by the association. The rehabilitation of these refineries must be concluded, as this will go a long way in not short-changing the Nigerian nation.”

ALSO READ: Jonathan greets Theophilus Danjuma at 81

Speaking at the Delegate Conference, titled: “The role of Labour in Maintaining Industrial and Political Stability in Nigeria,” the PENGASSAN President commended the NNPC management for its role in ensuring the JV Cash Call resolution, fully functional operations of Depots in Mosimi, Ore, Aba, Gombe, Ibadan, Calabar, Ilorin, Kaduna and others.

He said: “We will use this medium to sincerely appreciate the dedication and commitment efforts of the NNPC Management in their investment drive to position the corporation for greater efficiency.

“We are again grateful to the management of NNPC and other subsidiaries units for their support on capacity development, improved staff welfare and career progression for some of our members of the GEC and our associations as a whole. We equally commend the management for their understanding in resolving issues involving some management staff recently.”

Also in his speech, the GEC Chairman, Comrade Sulaiman .A. Sulaiman, called on the management of NNPC to put as a priority the issue of the downstream sector, most especially the refineries, depots and pipelines that has defied solutions.

According to him, the refineries are almost grounded and the only hope of comprehensive rehabilitation through the financier model as proposed by top management of NNPC seems not realistic.

He emphasized that this development is giving was giving the workforce some concern; adding that other staff related issues that need management intervention include deterioration of staff strength in almost every section of the corporation, Human Capacity Development/Training and succession planning.