The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja Division, has granted accelerated hearing to a suit filed by concerned members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) challenging aspects of the union’s leadership succession process, constitutional amendments and the planned national delegates conference and election.

The order was made on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, by Justice M.A. Hamza following an application by Sunday Ebulu and Koloh Edwin, who are challenging the continued stay in office of the current national leadership and other decisions taken by the association ahead of its leadership transition.

The court, however, declined the applicants’ request to stop the PENGASSAN national delegates conference and election scheduled for this weekend in Abuja.

Rather, Justice M.A Hamza directed that the substantive application be heard on an accelerated basis, ordering the respondents to file their responses within seven days of being served with the originating processes and motion on notice, while the applicants are to file any reply within three days thereafter.

The association is scheduled to hold its National Delegates Conference on Saturday, August 22, 2026, during which the transition to a new national president is expected to take place.

The dispute centres partly on the tenure of incumbent National President, Comrade Festus Osifo and the constitutional framework governing his succession.

The applicants contended that Osifo’s three-year tenure expired on May 10, 2026, having assumed office three years earlier.

However, the timing of the leadership transition had been linked to the union’s scheduled August delegates conference.

Osifo was re-elected unopposed on May 10, 2023 for another three-year term, while the union had since adopted a new succession arrangement under which the elected deputy president automatically succeeds the national president.

Under the new arrangement, the applicants are challenging an August 2025 amendment to the PENGASSAN Constitution which provides for automatic succession by the deputy president.

They are asking the court to declare the amendment null and void, arguing that it is discriminatory, unconstitutional and inconsistent with Sections 40 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution.

They have also questioned the eligibility of some of the individuals involved in the proposed succession arrangement.

According to the applicants, the third respondent was allegedly ineligible to hold any office in PENGASSAN because his employment remained under probation.

They also demanded that George Nwoko, another respondent, was ineligible to contest or hold the office of deputy president because he had retired from service.

The applicants are consequently asking the court to restrain the relevant respondents, their agents and privies from inaugurating the third respondent as national president or conducting an election into national offices pending the determination of the substantive suit.

They had also sought an order directing Osifo to hand over the leadership of the association to another respondent pending the determination of the case.

However, Justice Hamza declined those requests at this stage.

The court also refused to stop the national delegate conference and the election, while the substantive legal issues are determined.

The decision to grant accelerated hearing meant that the court would consider the applicants’ substantive complaints on an expedited basis.

The court said: “In view of the urgency disclosed, the motion on notice shall be heard on an accelerated basis.

“The applicant shall forthwith serve all originating processes, the motion on notice and this order on the respondents.

“The respondents shall file and serve their responses within seven days of service. The applicants shall file any reply within three days thereafter. The matter is hereby adjourned to the nearest available date for hearing of the motion on notice.”

The matter was subsequently adjourned to the nearest available date for hearing of the motion on notice.

A few days earlier, the National Industrial Court, Lagos Division, delivered judgment in another case involving some of the same applicants and the PENGASSAN leadership.

On August 10, 2026, Justice Joyce A.O. Damachi nullified the dissolution of the PENGASSAN Chevron Branch executive committees, declared an eight-member caretaker committee constituted by the union’s Central Working Committee unconstitutional and voided the branch elections conducted on September 16, 2025.

In its August 10 judgment, the court held that the dissolution and caretaker arrangement were unconstitutional and that the caretaker committee’s tenure could not lawfully be extended beyond the three-month period provided by the union’s constitution.