A FRESH twist has emerged in the ongoing dispute between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), as some of the engineers recently sacked or suspended by the refinery have accused the company of victimisation and unfair redeployment to unrelated business units within the Dangote Group.
The affected engineers, who spoke to News Point Nigeria on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the company was punishing them for joining PENGASSAN, despite earlier assurances that workers were free to unionise.
They expressed displeasure over alleged plans by management to redeploy them from the refinery to Dangote’s cement, sugar, or salt subsidiaries, describing the move as both “unjust” and “psychologically distressing.”
“It is victimisation. How can you redeploy petrochemical engineers to sugar or cement plants? It is not fair,” one of the affected workers said.
“We were employed by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, not by the Dangote Group. If we were, we would have expected redeployment. This is targeted punishment for joining the union.”
The crisis began after PENGASSAN alleged that the refinery fired about 800 workers for volunteering to join the union, an action the association described as anti-labour.
In protest, PENGASSAN, alongside the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), shut down several oil and gas facilities nationwide between Sunday and Tuesday last week, causing production losses and a temporary drop in power generation.
The Federal Government later intervened, brokering a truce and directing the Dangote Group to recall or redeploy the affected engineers. However, the workers said they had not been reinstated as of Tuesday, October 7.
“We’ve been at home since September 25. The company told us to stay away pending redeployment, but nothing has happened. When we tried to access the refinery, security stopped us at the gate,” one source said.
The workers also alleged that Indian nationals were now solely managing operations at the $20 billion refinery since the mass suspension of Nigerian engineers.
“At the moment, only Indians are running the refinery. All Nigerian engineers were sent away for joining PENGASSAN,” they claimed.
However, the company has strongly denied these allegations, insisting that over 3,000 Nigerians are still working at the refinery.
In an earlier statement, the Dangote Media Team said, “Only a very small number of staff were affected, and we continue to recruit Nigerian talent through our graduate trainee and experienced hire programmes.”
Responding to the allegations, a senior Dangote official told our correspondent that no one was dismissed for joining PENGASSAN, adding that the few workers affected were removed for acts of sabotage.
“Those guys were sacked because of sabotage. Nobody is being victimised. Their September salaries have been paid can we call that victimisation? We still have PENGASSAN members working with us,” the official said.
He explained that redeployment within the Dangote Group was a standard practice and not punitive.
“At Dangote, anyone can be moved between cement, refinery, sugar, or fertiliser plants. That’s the business model,” he said.
The official also dismissed the workers’ claims of poor pay, insisting that their monthly salaries were far above N400,000, contrary to the figures being circulated.
The affected engineers maintained that they were deeply committed to the refinery project and would never sabotage the multibillion-dollar facility.
“We love the refinery. Many of us helped build it from scratch. How can we sabotage what we built? We were only exercising our right to unionise,” one of the sacked engineers said.
They added that their decision to join PENGASSAN came after the management publicly announced that workers were free to join unions.
“We wouldn’t have joined if we were well paid and treated fairly. But we joined after the company itself encouraged unionisation. Now, we are being punished for it,” they lamented.
The refinery, Africa’s largest privately owned oil processing facility, has recently faced a string of controversies involving major industry unions.
Both NUPENG and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) have accused the refinery of monopolistic practices following recent petrol price cuts, which marketers said placed them at a disadvantage.
The dispute deepened when PENGASSAN joined in, condemning what it described as the mass dismissal of unionising workers, leading to a nationwide halt in crude supply and fuel distribution.
Government mediation temporarily restored calm, but stakeholders are now waiting to see how the Dangote Group will implement agreements reached during last week’s conciliation meeting.
Meanwhile, prominent Nigerians; including Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, and activist Aisha Yesufu have called for caution, warning that continued labour unrest could scare away investors and undermine Nigeria’s fragile industrial growth.