We’ll ground Dangote Refinery again – PENGASSAN tells FG

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) has told the Federal Government that it would ground Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE if it sacks any of its members again.

Its President, Festus Osifo, said this following the statement by Vice President Kashim Shettima that it was wrong shutting down the refinery.

Shettima, who spoke at the opening of the Nigerian Economic Summit, 2025 in Abuja on Monday, said the world would judge Nigeria by how it treats the Founder of the refinery, Aliko Dangote.

He said Dangote is not just an individual but an institution.

Reacting to the position of the Federal Government in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, Osifo said PENGASSAN had a mandate to protect the jobs of its members sacked by the Dangote refinery for joining the association.

He told The PUNCH: “Of course the nation is bigger than PENGASSAN, the way it’s bigger than Dangote and the Presidency.

“We have a mandate to protect the jobs of our members, that we will discharge whenever the need arises.

“Should this same event occur again tomorrow, our approach will be exactly the same.”

Asked for his reaction to social media comments that the Federal Government might be pushed to dissolve PENGASSAN because a strike by its members threatened energy security, Osifo told The PUNCH: “Does the law prohibit workers’ right to strike?”