Sylvester Idowu in Warri
The assist employees of Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) have accused the Refinery Coordinator, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Bayo Adenrele, of working towards President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and attempting to instigate violence towards the administration.
The aggrieved staff claimed that Adenrele has stripped off royalties from host communities of WRPC, vowing that they’ll now not tolerate the rubbishing of host communities.
Chairman of the assist employees of WRPC, Dafe Ighomitedo, who spoke to newsmen on the entrance of WRPC Tuesday, throughout the continued protest of the assist employees, stated NNPCL had been telling the employees lies, upon lies since 2015.
Ighomitedo, said: “This is the fourth week we’ve been right here protesting for us to get our severance package deal, having the outdated contract expired thirtieth September. Unfortunately, it has been lies upon lies. We have been right here since 2015 and this protest has been happening since 2015, but it surely at all times ends with deceit.
“The two palaces internet hosting this firm (WRPC) went to Abuja, the place they made guarantees to present the employees correct welfare. They laid off individuals and provides us peanuts, we that remained, we’re nonetheless hopeful that sometime, one thing good will occur, however no manner. They instructed the plenty that they’re taking good care of us, saying they’re paying us N90,000 to N150,000. No pension, no medical, no transport, we don’t even have entry to the plant clinic, after we are sick, it’s so demeaning. We can now not take it. We have been right here since fifth October, until now they haven’t responded.
“The Refinery Coordinator (RC) for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Adenrele, feels we’re no one and we’ve misplaced confidence in him. He has no integrity relating to the Support Staff of WRPC.
“He is working against this present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is doing this to instigate violence against the president. We have been peaceful for so long. The community has been rubbished for too long and we can no longer take it. Bayo Adenrele has stripped the community of all royalties. This time around, it won’t be business as usual.”
Ighomitedo demanded to have a gathering with the Executive Vice-President, Downstream at NNPC Limited, Dr. Mumuni Dagazau, insisting that he ought to come all the way down to Warri to handle the protesting staff.
“We want to see the Executive Vice-President, Downstream at NNPC Limited, Dr. Mumuni Dagazau. He should come and address us, because the RC is rubbishing his office and staining the image of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Bayo Ojulari. RC is telling people that we are outsourced. We have our letters and document. We were employed directly. Our case is peculiar. The Acting MD right now was once a Support Staff that was later converted, but now nobody wants to convert us,” he stated.
One of the assist employees, Akivie Kingsley, who spoke in the identical vein, said: “It has been guarantees and failed guarantees, what this persons are owing us, is what I can’t even communicate out. We are entitled to each welfare, however their guarantees have gotten to the purpose that we are able to now not take it.
“If we are going on leave, no leave allowance. We have people that are already dead; we have two corpses in the mortuary as we speak; we have marriages that are crashing because of lack of finance. Children are off school, because we cannot pay their school fees and the RC expects engineers like us, with vast experience, to keep working in this kind of environment, with N90,000 salary, it won’t work. We are done with this slave contract.”
Another assist employees of WRPC, who’s a Lab Technician, Benjamin Iwuno, lamented that he had put in over 13yrs in WRPC, stressing that each one his service years has been taken as a right, being paid peanuts and no well being profit.
“How do you clarify to the federal government that you’ve over 300 personnel working with you and none of them is pensionable? They can’t have entry to primary healthcare. Some of my colleagues have died on obligation, no compensation.
“Can the N90,000 take somebody with family home? The management is telling us that we don’t mean anything to them. How is it possible that my boss will write my job as his appraisal and I get nothing in return? It is painful. I want my rightful benefit working in oil and gas company,” Iwuno stated.
For Harriet Charles, the story was not totally different, she wept whereas narrating her expertise with the WRPC for the previous 14 years.
“I’ve been right here for the previous 14years, I wasn’t like this, if you happen to get to my home now, I don’t have TV, as a result of N90,000 can not get me TV. My youngsters are in class however can not pay their faculty charges. I am going begging generally, as a result of the cash they’re paying me is so meagre, individuals assume I earn loads cash as a result of I work in a refinery, the place is the cash?
“I have to buy soup from people selling soup to manage with my children. I have lost close friends working in the same department with me. I need my severance package, so I can be able to take care of my children. My house rent is due. We need this money, we are dying,” she added.
The aggrieved staff carried banners with inscriptions comparable to ‘EVP Downstream, Dr. Mumuni Dangazaun, must act now’; ‘The RC, Engr. Bayo Adenrele, Has No Integrity’; ‘WRPC Support Staff were never outsourced, but employed directed by WRPC’ and ‘No EVP Downstream, No discussion.’
