Tension has escalated at the $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery as some of the engineers recently disengaged accused the company of victimising them for joining the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, following plans to redeploy them to sugar, cement, and other business units under the Dangote Group.
Speaking anonymously due to fear of reprisals, the affected workers said they were employed specifically by the refinery and not by the Dangote Group and described the planned redeployment as punishment for unionisation. According to them, redeploying petrochemical engineers to non-related sectors like sugar and cement was “unfair and psychologically distressing.”
However, the Dangote media team on Wednesday debunked the claims, stating that PENGASSAN members are still active in the refinery and insisting only a few workers were disengaged for allegedly sabotaging operations, describing it as part of a reorganisation process.
PENGASSAN had last week led a shutdown of oil and gas facilities from Sunday to Tuesday after alleging that 800 refinery workers were sacked for joining the union. The industrial action disrupted oil and gas output and caused a drop in national power generation. The Federal Government intervened, directing the company to recall and redeploy the affected workers.
Despite this, the engineers told The PUNCH that no redeployment letters had been issued as of Tuesday and that attempts to access the facility were blocked by security officials. They alleged that only Indian nationals were currently operating the refinery while Nigerian engineers remained locked out.
“At the moment, only Indians are running the refinery. All Nigerian engineers were sacked because we joined PENGASSAN,” they claimed.
The workers added that they had no intention of joining PENGASSAN initially but were compelled by low wages and after management publicly announced that employees were free to unionise.
“We wouldn’t have joined PENGASSAN if we were well paid. Our salary is around N400,000, and after deductions, it falls below that. We joined PENGASSAN, and it became an issue,” they said.
On allegations of sabotage, they maintained their loyalty to the refinery. “We cannot sabotage the refinery. Some of us built it from the beginning. Our only ‘crime’ is that we joined PENGASSAN.”
Responding, a senior official of the Dangote Group maintained that the sacked engineers were disengaged solely for acts of sabotage, not union membership.
“Those guys were sacked because of their acts of sabotage. Nobody is victimising them. Their September salary has been paid. They were not sacked for joining PENGASSAN. We have PENGASSAN members still working with us,” he said, stressing that movement across the conglomerate’s business units is standard practice. He also dismissed claims that salaries were below N400,000, calling it “an outright falsehood.”
The refinery has been at the centre of multiple controversies in recent weeks, facing backlash from marketers and unions over pricing and labour practices. While government mediation has eased street-level tension, stakeholders are closely watching to see if the agreements reached during conciliation will be enforced.
