Oil Workers Shut Down Refinery, NNPC Facilities In Rivers

The Port Harcourt refinery and all NNPC facilities have been shut down in Rivers State following the controversies surrounding the purported unbundling of the oil corporation.

This was confirmed to Channels Television on Wednesday by the Group Secretary of the National Union Of Petroleum & Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Uche Amara, in Abuja where the union leaders are currently meeting.

According to him, the unions were not just concerned about the unbundling procedure which lacked due process, but also other labour matters that needed the attention of the Federal government.

‘Down Tool’

The ‘down tool’ is coming after oil workers shut down the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) nationwide until further notice.

The decision was reached on Tuesday at a meeting of the Group Executive Councils of NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

Meanwhile, oil workers have shut down Kaduna refinery over the purported unbundling of the NNPC, asking the government to reverse the decision.

Channels Television’s correspondent in Kaduna State said that the workers locked up the refinery gate, preventing management staff and others from entering the refinery.

In an attempt to address the issues that had resulted after media reports linked him to the statement about the purported unbundling, the Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said that the NNPC would not be unbundled but reorganised.