The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said workers protesting the split of the state-owned oil company have ended their strike after talks late Thursday with Managing Director Emmanuel Kachikwu.
The management level Petroleum Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or Pengassan, and its blue-collar Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, or Nupeng, opposed the move to split the NNPC into five units announced this week. The unions said the move violates the law and also raised concern about workers’ benefits.
“Sequel to exhaustive deliberations between our group managing director and Pengassan and Nupeng, the corporate-wide strike has been suspended,” the NNPC said Friday on its Twitter account.
Protesters prevented staff from getting into the NNPC headquarters in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday, according to company spokesman Ohi Alegbe.
President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to revamp the NNPC and rid it of corruption that multiple probes have said is endemic. The company lost 267 billion naira ($1.34 billion) last year after being dragged down by its refining and oil-producing businesses as the finances of Africa’s top crude exporter were battered by a slump in crude prices.
(Bloomberg)
