NUPENG suspends strike after DSS brokered truce with Dangote

•Unionisation process to be completed in 2 weeks

•Labour vows strict monitoring

By Victor Ahiuma-Young & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has suspended its nationwide strike, after reaching an agreement with the management of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited on workers’ unionisation.

NUPENG had on Monday declared a nationwide industrial action to protest refusal of the Dangote Group to allow its workers to join the union.

The strike had raised fears of imminent fuel scarcity across the country.

The breakthrough came during a two-day high-level conciliation meeting convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, in Abuja, with the intervention of the Department of State Services, DSS.

Also in attendance at yesterday’s meeting were the ministers of labour and finance, representatives of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC.

The Dangote management team was led by Mr. Sayyu Dantata, Group Managing Director.

Unionisation secured

In the signed Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, Dangote management accepted that unionisation was a fundamental right of its employees and pledged to implement it without interference.

“The management is not averse to unionisation. We will abide by the provisions of the law and ensure employees who wish to join unions are free to do so without interference,” Mr. Sayyu Dantata, Managing Director of Dangote Group who led the team was quoted as saying, after signing the agreement.

The MoU further stipulated that “unionisation of employees must be completed between September 9 and 22, 2025, no employer-sponsored or alternative unions will be created, no worker will be victimised for participating in the strike or supporting unionisation and both parties will report back to the minister of labour a week after the process concludes.”

Speaking with Vanguard, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, said the choice of the DSS office was to have a different environment, adding that it afforded the opportunity for the minister of finance to be in attendance.

On his part, the President of NUPENG,  Williams Akporeha, said all contentious issues were resolved.

He said: “We signed agreement and members have agreed to unionisation of workers in Dangote Petrochemical refinery.”

He said the strike was to be called off immediately, adding that tankers had started loading petroleum products.

On the alleged uncompromising behaviour exhibited by the Dangote refinery representative, the NUPENG President said the Dangote team denied any such thing.

He said: “They said they didn’t walk out. The man (Dangote refinery representative) said he was hungry and has ulcer, so he had to go and eat, that there was nothing like he walked out.”

Asked why the contentious issues were not resolved on Monday night meeting, Akporeha said: “They tried to bring in some clauses. They didn’t agree on our own input while we did not also agree on their input but today (yesterday), we have been able to harmonise that and we have signed.”

Highlighting some of the clauses in contention, he said: ”They brought in this DTCDA (Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association) which they don’t have right to do and we have also said that going forward, they shouldn’t force any union on the workers, the management should not create any union for the workers.”

The DTCDA is a new union formed by the management of Dangote refinery for its workers, but the NUPENG boss said it had been agreed that it should be disbanded, adding that the ministry of labour had already declared it an illegal organisation.

Acting General Secretary of NLC, Benson Upah, who led the NLC team, said: “This agreement reaffirms that unionisation is not a privilege but a fundamental right. Nigerian workers at the Dangote Refinery will no longer be treated as outsiders in their own industry.”

The MoU was signed by Mr. Sayyu Dantata and Otunba Jibrin, for the management, while Comrade Benson Upah for NLC, Prince Williams Akporeha and Afolabi Olawale signed for NUPENG.

Similarly, Nuhu Toro appended the document for TUC; Mr. O.K. Ukoha for NMDPRA, and Falonipe Amos for ministry of labour and employment.

Recall that a similar meeting between both parties on Monday ended in deadlock, prompting the intervention of the DSS on yesterday’s meeting.

However, before yesterday’s agreement was brokered, NUPENG had shut depots across the country, causing long queues and rising cost of fuel in some parts of the country.

While the price of petrol per litre shot up in Calabar, Cross Rivers State to N1,500, it rose to N1,200 in Ebonyi.

A similar increase in price was reported in Rivers State and some other parts of the country, as motorists had already resorted panic-buying.

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