No fewer than 15 members of staff of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) have sued the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) over their suspension and the appointment of a caretaker committee for the regulatory authority.
The 15 members took the PENGASSAN leadership to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja Judicial Division. The legal battle is a new twist to the existing crisis in the NMDPRA branch of PENGASSAN, which culminated in the suspension of over 40 members by the PENGASSAN leadership a few months ago.
It would be recalled that the Industrial Court, Lagos Division, had ordered all parties involved in a leadership dispute at the Chevron branch of the PENGASSAN to maintain peace and cooperate with the court.
The presiding judge, Joyce Onugba-Damachi, issued the directive while hearing a suit brought by seven Chevron senior staff members challenging the union’s national leadership over the dissolution of the branch’s executive committees and the installation of a caretaker committee (CTC).
In the originating summons brought pursuant to Section 254 (C) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended and Order Rule 3 of the NICN (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2017, the claimants raised 16 issues for determination and sought 18 reliefs.
They sought a declaration that by the provision of the PENGASSAN Constitution 2022, the affairs of a branch of the association could not be administered with a caretaker committee for more than three months, within which a branch election would be conducted, among other reliefs.
The demands added: “A declaration that the act of running any branch of the PENGASSAN with a caretaker committee for over a period of three months is unconstitutional, illegal and unknown to the PENGASSAN constitution.
“A declaration that the suspension of the claimants by the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the first defendant on August 18, 2025, pursuant to the recommendation of an Ethical, Grievance and Disciplinary Committee (EGDC) not constituted by the branch executive committee (BECOM) is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void,” the claimants stated.
