The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers suspended its two-day strike on Tuesday following a meeting with officials of the Federal Government and the Dangote Group, amid fuel supply disruptions in different locations across the country.
The National President of NUPENG, Williams Akporeha, confirmed this to one of our correspondents. After the failure of the Monday meeting, the Ministry of Labour summoned another meeting on Tuesday with more stakeholders in attendance.
Those in attendance included representatives of the Dangote Group led by Sayyu Dantata, officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, and others. An agreement signed after the meeting showed that the Dangote refinery agreed to unionise its members.
“Following the threat to embark on industrial action by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers over the refusal of the management of the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Limited to allow their employees to be unionised by registered labour unions, a conciliation meeting was held at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, and it was revealed in the course of the meeting that:
The management agreed with this fact and responded that they are not averse to the unionisation of their employees by labour unions in tandem with the provisions of the extant labour laws. After exhaustive deliberations, the following resolutions were reached by both parties: That since workers’ unionisation is a right in line with the provisions of the extant laws, the management of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals agreed to the unionisation of employees of Dangote Refinery and the unionisation of employees of Petrochemicals who are willing to unionise.
“That the process of unionisation shall commence immediately and be completed within two weeks (9th-22nd September, 2025), and it was agreed that the employer will not set up any other union.
Arising from the strike notice, no worker or employee of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical will be victimised,” the agreement read.
Parties are to revert to the Minister of Labour a week after the conclusion of the engagement. Based on the MoU, NUPENG agreed to suspend the industrial action with immediate effect.
The MoU was signed by Dangote’s Sayyu Dantata; NUPENG’s Akporeha and his Secretary, Afolabi Olawale; an official of the NMDPRA, OK Ukoha; a director of the labour ministry, Amos Falonipe; and representatives of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress.
However, as the strike entered the second day before its suspension on Tuesday, Nigerians in different parts of the country felt the impact as many filling stations were shut. NUPENG had on Friday declared its intention to stop loading fuel this week over allegations that the Dangote refinery planned to ban the drivers recruited for its 4,000 trucks from joining the union.
Recall that the Dangote refinery planned to start direct fuel distribution from August 15 with its 4,000 Compressed Natural Gas-powered trucks. But the scheme was delayed due to a lack of enough ships to bring the trucks to Nigeria. While the refinery is still receiving the trucks as they arrive in Nigeria, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of NUPENG accused the refinery management of anti-labour practices for not allowing its drivers to join the union.
They also accused Alhaji Aliko Dangote of plans to render them useless with his direct fuel distribution scheme. NUPENG President Akporeha on Sunday confirmed that the Federal Government had reached out to the union on the need to avert the strike, but he refused to call off the strike.
Following the inability of the Federal Government to broker peace between NUPENG and the Dangote refinery at the Monday conciliation meeting organised by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Muhammad Dingyadi, the union continued the strike, shutting down depots and some filling stations. The suspension of the strike later in the evening was a relief in areas where its impact was felt.
In states like Cross River and Kaduna, many filling stations were under lock and key on Tuesday, while some adjusted pump prices in Sokoto and Enugu. It was also gathered that vehicle owners engaged in panic buying in parts of Lagos and Ogun States.
