ABUJA—PETROLEUM and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, has petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan over increasing kidnap and killing of oil workers in Niger Delta Region especially in Rivers State, threatening to withdraw members from the region should government fail to take urgent steps to protect workers.
PENGASSAN in the petition through its General Secretary, Bayo Olowoshile, claimed already the International Oil Companies, IOCs, had issued security alert and warnings to their employees over resurging threats to workers and operations in the oil and gas industry.
The petition was also sent to Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Dr. Diezani Allison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Chief EmekaWogu, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Abba Moro, Minister of Interior, Director- General Department of State Service, DSS, National Security Adviser to the President, and the Inspector-General of Police.
The petition reads in part: “PENGASSAN is painfully constrained to draw the attention of your esteemed office to the disconcerting resurgence of kidnapping, abduction and gruesome killing of oil workers in the Niger Delta Area for which we passionately ask for your Excellency’s immediate intervention.
“Regrettably, we are still lamenting the seemingly uncontainable oil theft, illegal bunkering and abysmal petroleum refining which has put the Oil and Gas revenue prospects on the alarming brink with attendant deficit impact on the committed expenditure and capital projects across the various levels of Government.
“Sir, no players and investors will be encouraged into any unpredictable or vulnerable business environment such as our Oil and Gas Sector is once again exposed. Rather, the industry wishes to be fully reassured that the respite recorded from the re-orientation from militancy to human development and empowerment which is gathering momentum in the Niger Delta has come to stay.”
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/pengassan-petitions-jonathan-on-kidnap-killing-of-oil-workers/#sthash.pkvAqOvc.dpuf
