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Senior oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, and Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, on Thursday threatened to shut down all oil operations by Sunday if Federal Government fails to pay their salaries by Friday.

The workers made this known during a protest which started peacefully on Wednesday, but snowballed into threats when the labour bodies converged at the Petroleum Training Institute, PTI, Effurun in continuation of their three-day warning strike.

The protesters who dressed in red attire carried placards with some reading: “No To Forceful Enrollment into IPPIS,” “Release Our Salaries Now or No Dialogue,” “We Are Not Against IPPIS but Create Another Platform That Addresses Our Peculiarities”.

Vice Chairman, Warri Zonal Council of PENGASSAN and Secretary of Regulators Forum, Prince Audu Oshiokhamele , who addressed the protesting workers, warned that if their salaries were not released by Friday, all oil operations will be shut down by midnight of Sunday.

“I want to assure you, our union members, that if our salaries are not released before Friday, by 12 midnight on Sunday, we will shut down the whole nation. What we are just doing now is a warning protest but by Sunday, the music will change”, he warned.

Prince Oshiokhamele, who was in company of Mr. James Esiomor, PTI Branch Chairman of PENGASSAN and Mr. Ejokirhie Jahpurpose, Chairman of PTI Branch of NUPENG, expressed surprise that the Federal Ministry of Finance claimed ignorance of non payment of their salaries in the last three months but are now making efforts to placate the union.

“We are surprised that the Ministry of Finance, on Wednesday, denied that they are not aware that our salaries have been stopped. Why are they making every efforts to see how they can placate the union? They can’t placate us until our salaries are paid”, he said.

The Warri Zonal Council Vice Chairman of PENGASSAN noted that the only solution to their threat is for the Federal Government to pay the salaries of the protesting workers by today before they can return for negotiations on the IPPIS issue.

While noting that they were not against the implementation of the IPPIS policy, Prince Oshiokhamele noted that what they are clamouring for is the creation of another platform that will take care of peculiarities in their operations which is different from that of core civil servants.

He recalled that the issue was first raised concerning their work peculiarities in 2016 when a tripartite committee was set up under the then Minister of Trade without success because the Director of IPPIS failed to attend meetings to find a solution.

“Again, in November last year, another committee was set up in other for us to ensure that the peculiarities under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum are captured, and still, nothing has come out of that. We can’t operate under IPPIS as put in place now because no two workers earn the same salaries. All our salaries are performance driven.

“All efforts to meet IPPIS Director to simulate how he is going to capture our peculiarities has failed. Enough is enough, we can’t be slaves in our own country. If by tomorrow, we don’t get our salaries, be rest assured that we will shutdown all oil operations. That’s the only language they understand”, he added.


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