FG Plans PENGASSAN, Dangote Emergency Talks Today
THECONSCIENCE NG reports that the Federal Government has waded into the looming industrial dispute between the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Dangote Refinery, summoning both parties to an emergency meeting on Monday, September 29, 2025.
Maigari Dingyadi, minister of labor and employment, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, appealing to PENGASSAN to suspend its planned strike scheduled to begin tomorrow.
According to Dingyadi, the Ministry has initiated steps to prevent the dispute from escalating by bringing the parties to the negotiation table. Invitations, he said, have already been extended to the leadership of PENGASSAN and the management of Dangote Refinery to attend a conciliation session in his office.
“I appeal to both parties to be mindful of the importance of the petroleum sector to the country, being the core of her economy. A strike will not only lead to heavy revenue losses by the country but also cause more hardship and difficulties for Nigerians,” the Minister warned. “Consequentially, it will have adverse impacts, both on economic stability and national security.”
Dingyadi urged PENGASSAN to withdraw its strike declaration to allow for peaceful dialogue, assuring that the Federal Government is committed to resolving the dispute amicably and in the national interest.
The statement was signed by Patience Onuobia, Head of Information and Public Relations, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
The leadership of PENGASSAN, in a letter signed by Lumumba Okugbawa, its general secretary had called on members working across field locations to withdraw services effective 06:00hrs on Sunday, 28″ of September, 2025.
This is as the Association insisted that Dangote Refinery’s unilateral action to sack over 800 members for joining PENGASSAN is an affront to all workers in Nigeria and a deliberate violation of Nigeria’s labour laws, the Constitution, and ILO conventions.
The Association noted that no intervention whatsoever will be entertained across field locations except where the safety of personnel and assets is at risk.
“Dangote Refinery’s notoriety for enslaving Nigerian workers, and the eventual sack of al Nigerians working in the refinery and hiring of over 2,000 Indians, is a show of disloyalty to a country that has given him the most incentives any company has ever enjoyed in Nigeria, at taxpayers’ expense. They have subjected Nigerians to the worst type of working conditions in the oil and gas industry.
” That the over 800 staff whose jobs have been given to Indians, and their families are Nigerians and victims was made to suffer unjustly and there is an urgent need to avoid setting a dangerous precedence.
“Consequently, the NEC resolves as follows: all PENGASSAN members across al ofices, companies, institutions, and agencies should withdraw allservices effective 00:01 on Monday, 29th of September, 2025.
“All processes that involve gas and crude supply to Dangote Refinery should be let off effectively immediately. All IOC branches must ramp down gas production and supply to Dangote Refinery and petrochemicals. The prayer point should include a call to God Almighty to give courage to those in authority to rein in Dangote and his co-travelers on the need to obey the laws of our country,” the Association said.
