Dangote vs NUPENG: Union insists on strike, meets FG, others today

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers on Sunday declared that it would still embark on strike beginning from today (Monday), despite the intervention of the Federal Government to address the grievances of the union.

NUPENG President, Williams Akporeha, confirmed that the Federal Government had reached out to the union on the need to avert the strike. He, however, insisted that the industrial action would go ahead, pending the outcome of the meeting with the government today (Monday).

The union had on Friday announced that it would begin an industrial action on September 8, 2025, a development that could lead to fuel scarcity. Its decision stemmed from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s plan to import 4,000 Compressed Natural Gas-powered trucks for direct fuel distribution to retailers.

Although the scheme, earlier scheduled to begin on August 15, was delayed by logistics challenges in China, the refinery said it would kick off once a substantial number of the trucks arrived.

But in a statement jointly signed by Akporeha and the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, on Friday, NUPENG accused the Dangote refinery of anti-labour practices that threatened the livelihoods of members of its Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch.

The union lamented that the refinery’s owner, Aliko Dangote, had insisted that new drivers for the imported trucks would not be allowed to join any union. It described the decision as an affront to freedom of association guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution and a breach of international labour conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.

NUPENG recalled that it had held several meetings, alongside the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, to persuade Dangote to reconsider. However, its appeals were allegedly ignored. The matter got to its climax when MRS oil firm, owned by Dangote’s cousin, Sayyu Dantata, reportedly began the recruitment of drivers for the CNG truck and compelled them to sign undertakings not to belong to any oil and gas union.

As a result, NUPENG said its members would stop fuel loading nationwide from Monday if the situation remained unresolved, saying the union would not stand by while jobs were being eroded.

In a bid to avert the strike, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, announced on Sunday that he had summoned all parties to a conciliation meeting in Abuja. The intervention aims to defuse rising tensions over alleged anti-unionisation policies at the refinery.

In a statement signed by the ministry’s Head of Information and Public Relations, Patience Onuobia, Dingyadi appealed to NUPENG to suspend its planned shutdown of petroleum operations and called on the Nigeria Labour Congress to withdraw the “red alert” it issued in solidarity with oil workers.

“I have invited all the parties for a conciliation meeting tomorrow, Monday, September 8, 2025. Since I have intervened, I plead with NUPENG to rescind their decision to shut down the petroleum sector from tomorrow. I also appeal to the NLC to withdraw the red alert it issued to its affiliate unions to be on standby for a nationwide strike,” Dingyadi said.

The minister warned that industrial action in the petroleum sector would trigger widespread hardship across the country and inflict heavy losses on government revenue.

“The petroleum sector is very important to this country. It constitutes the core of the country’s economy. A strike in the petroleum sector, even for just a day, will have an adverse impact. It will not only lead to revenue losses running into billions of naira but also cause untold hardship for Nigerians,” he cautioned.

He also called on all stakeholders to allow peace to prevail, assuring that the government will broker a resolution acceptable to both labour and the private refinery. “The matter will be resolved amicably to the satisfaction of all the parties involved,” the minister stated.

But in a chat with one of our correspondents, the NUPENG president, who admitted that the union was invited by the government to a meeting on the matter, insisted that the group would begin its strike today.

Akporeha said the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company have reached out to the union over the planned strike. He, however, told The PUNCH that the intervention of the government was not enough to stop the planned strike.

“The Federal Government and the NNPC are reaching out, but there is nothing concrete yet,” Akporeha said. Asked if the strike would still start on Monday, Akporeha replied, “Yes, though the Minister of Labour has called for a meeting. The meeting will be held tomorrow (Monday) in Abuja. But the strike starts tomorrow morning as planned.”

Marketers back NUPENG

Barring any last-minute reversal, marketers of petroleum products have said they would shut down their filling stations should the planned strike by tanker drivers over their face-off with the Dangote Group start on Monday.

The National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlet Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, told The PUNCH in an interview on Sunday that filling stations would have to close down if the strike starts today (Monday). He described the strike as a looming danger.

According to Gillis-Harry, some of PETROAN’s staff are NUPENG members, and they would join the strike. “PETROAN will have no choice because some of our staff are members of NUPENG. And once those people go on strike, our stations will be vulnerable, so we will not open the stations.

That is our concern. The reality is that if our pump attendants, who are members of NUPENG, don’t come to work for any reason, what are we going to do in these stations?” he said.

He announced PETROAN’s three-day suspension of lifting and dispensing of petroleum products commencing from the early hours of Tuesday, September 9, 2025, saying this was PETROAN’s advocacy for healthy competition “as against any form of monopoly in the Nigerian petroleum downstream sector.

He emphasised that the action of NUPENG would be both lawful and peaceful, underscoring the association’s commitment to promoting workers’ rights and benefits through constructive engagement.

He called on President Bola Tinubu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Bayo Ojulari, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and security agencies to intervene urgently in the proposed industrial actions to avert potential hardship and pain for citizens.

While making it clear that pump attendants at PETROAN filling stations are registered members of NUPENG, he said NUPENG’s strike would mean these attendants would be absent from duty.  As a result, he instructed filling station owners not to discipline or sack any pump attendant who would be absent from duty until the end of the strike.

Gillis-Harry stated that “the aggressive business strategies of the Dangote refinery would have far-reaching consequences, including pushing private depot owners, modular refinery operators, marketers, retail owners, truck owners, and truck drivers out of business.” This, he warned, would trigger millions of unemployed persons nationwide, with devastating effects on the economy and the livelihoods of Nigerians.

NUPENG had said in a statement on Sunday that there was no going back on the planned industrial action. The union’s president insisted that the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of its union would refrain from lifting petroleum products from depots nationwide, starting from Monday.

NUPENG also disowned a statement attributed to the President of the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association, Enoch Kanawa, which claimed that NUPENG could not speak for members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers.

In a statement on Saturday, Kanawa had urged Nigerians to disregard the planned industrial action. But the leadership of NUPENG declared that the Kanawa-led DTCDA was a creation of the management of the Dangote refinery, which has allegedly vowed not to allow its recruited truck drivers to “join NUPENG, the only statutorily recognised union authorised to unionise petroleum tanker drivers.”

The statement declared that Kanawa is a lawyer and not a tanker driver, maintaining that there is no division in the ranks of NUPENG or its PTD Branch. It further alleged that the Direct Trucking Company Limited is the recruiting company that was formed by Alhaji Sayyu Dantata and Alhaji Aliko Dangote for the 4,000 CNG trucks they are importing.

“The attention of the leadership of the NUPENG has been drawn to a news report of some unidentified persons and a group of people calling themselves the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association, asking Nigerians to disregard our alert on the withdrawal of services by the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Branch of NUPENG.

“We ask our members, members of the public, and independent-minded objective segments of the media to disregard DTCDA and its statements. The signatory to the statement of DTCDA, one Enoch Kanawa, is a lawyer, not a tanker driver. Enoch Kanawa signed the statement as the President of DTCDA.

“The media should ask Kanawa when DTCDA was formed and when his election as president took place. As a matter of fact, Kanawa was formerly the Executive Secretary of the National Association of Road Transport Owners from 2001 to 2012,” NUPENG said.

It added, “DTCDA was originally meant to be Dangote Transport Company. Its registered office is at 2, Tincan Island Port Road, Apapa, Lagos. The address of DTCDA is the same official address of MRS Energy Limited. Slavery ended centuries ago. Any worker who cannot exercise the right of association is no better than a slave. Ordinary Nigerians should neither encourage nor support slavish working conditions,” it was stated.

Recall that in a statement on Saturday, the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said labour had examined NUPENG’s petition and described the Dangote Group’s practices as “crude and dangerous”. Ajaero put all NLC members on notice, saying the NLC would mobilise for NUPENG when the need arose.

Falana backs NUPENG

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has called on the Federal Government to intervene with the owner of Dangote refinery, Aliko Dangote, over plans to force newly recruited drivers to sign agreements preventing them from joining existing unions in the oil and gas industry.

In a statement released on Sunday, Falana said the policy of the Dangote Group contravenes Section 40 of the Constitution, Section 12 of the Trade Union Act, and Article 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

He further stated that the policy violates the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) of the International Labour Organisation, as well as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all of which Nigeria has ratified.

“In view of the legal obligations imposed on the Federal Government of Nigeria by the Constitution, Trade Union Act, and international law to respect the fundamental rights of workers to freedom of association, the Registrar of Trade Unions should call Dangote Petroleum Refinery to order without delay.

At the same time, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission should halt the monopolistic practices of the Dangote Group forthwith, as they violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018.

“Even though powerful trade unions exist in all capitalist countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, the Dangote Group appears determined to undermine trade unions in Nigeria because it has been allowed to operate outside the ambit of the law.

“However, the Dangote Group should be reminded that the struggle of Nigerian workers to unionise was fought and won under the British colonial regime. To that extent, we support the strike of the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers against the policy of the Dangote Group, which seeks to erode the rights of Nigerian workers to unionise,” Falana stated.

Also, the Economic Rights Activists have urged the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, and other affiliated unions to suspend their planned nationwide strike on Monday, which threatens to disrupt fuel distribution and cripple economic activities.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, ERA’s Executive Director, Dr Josiah Inuwa, described the proposed industrial action as a “reckless and unpatriotic” assault on the masses. While appealing to the aggrieved parties to return to the negotiation table, the activists warned that their action would lead to hyperinflation and further hardship on millions of Nigerians.

The warning comes a few hours after the national secretariat of NUPENG vowed that there is no going back on the industrial action. Dangote refinery’s plan to import 4,000 compressed natural gas-powered trucks for direct fuel distribution to retailers triggered the call for a strike.

Addressing journalists on Sunday, Inuwa argued that the strike would primarily harm ordinary citizens—small business owners, transport operators, and families—rather than corporate giants.

“Transport fares will skyrocket, food prices will soar, hospitals will lose power, and small businesses will collapse. This is not a fight for justice—it is a direct attack on the Nigerian people. The okada rider in Enugu, the pepper seller in Osun, the teacher in Kaduna, and the mechanic in Port Harcourt will bear the brunt,” he stated.

The activists highlighted the devastating impact of past oil sector strikes, such as the 2012 fuel subsidy protests and the 2020 industrial actions, which cost the economy billions of naira daily and deepened recessionary pressures.

They also raised concerns about the timing of the strike, noting its alignment with efforts by vested interests to undermine Nigeria’s push for energy self-sufficiency through the Dangote Refinery, a critical step toward ending decades of reliance on imported fuel.

“Whether knowingly or not, NLC, NUPENG, and PETROAN risk becoming pawns of cartels that profit from the status quo,” Inuwa said, accusing the aggrieved unions of orchestrating sabotage to derail the refinery’s success.

As a way out of the conundrum, the ERA demanded that NLC, NUPENG and other unions suspend the strike and return to the negotiation table to resolve grievances through dialogue.

While calling on the management of Dangote Refinery to transparently address worker concerns, they also urged President Bola Tinubu, the Ministry of Labour, and relevant agencies to stand firm against union pressure while facilitating constructive engagement.

“Additionally, we appealed to the National Assembly to summon all parties involved to ensure transparency and investigate potential sabotage by cartels profiting from Nigeria’s fuel import dependency.  This is not about workers’ rights—it is about sabotage,” Inuwa warned.