No going back on warning strike, says NUPENG

Lauds FG’s plan to stop petroleum products import by 2018

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) says there is no going back on its planned warning strike scheduled to commence on Wednesday. The South-West Zonal Chairman of the union, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos yesterday that NUPENG had mobilised its members for the strike.

He said that the union was determined to forge ahead with the planned warning strike, which would begin from January 11 to 13.“The warning strike notice had been given since the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Port Harcourt in December and we picked second week of January which commences from January 8.

“As I speak now, all zones including Lagos have mobilised to ensure the success of the strike as directed by NEC body of NUPENG.“We are having another NEC meeting in Abuja on January 10, to appraise the preparation for the planned strike and meet the government officials.

“It has been the practice of the Nigerian government to wait until the ultimatum day before they start to run from one place to other to find solutions to it.“If this warning strike is not properly handled as we have mobilised to ensure success of our action, nobody should blame the union,” he said.

Korodo said that if the government had met the NEC of NUPENG before now, the action could have been “nipped in the bud.”Meanwhile, the union has commended the Federal Government’s policy to end importation of petroleum products by 2018.

NUPENG’s General Secretary, Joseph Ogbebor, stated the union’s position in an interview with NAN in Lagos yesterday.NAN reports that the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, in Ebonyi announced that by 2018, Nigeria would stop the importation of refined petroleum products.