A spokesman for Nigeria’s Dangote refinery onTuesday assured Nigerians that the ongoing strike by NUPENG would not lead to fuel shortage.
Recall that the strike, which began Monday and has since drawn support from other unions in Nigeria and abroad, comes as the refinery, the largest in Africa, is hiring its own drivers to deliver gasoline to retailers.
“There is no fuel shortage, everything is going on,” a refinery spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, told AFP, adding that talks were continuing between the union, the government, and the company.
Before last year’s opening of the Dangote refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had to import almost all its petrol despite being a major oil producer.
Critics pointed to years of neglect and mismanagement of government-owned refineries.
NUPENG has seen support pour in from local organisations, including the Nigeria Labour Congress, as well as groups from abroad, including global union IndustriALL, based in Switzerland, and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) network branch in Washington.
Chiejina, the Dangote spokesman, denied the claim that its drivers were not being allowed to join a union, calling it “cheap blackmail”.
“It’s not true… nobody has done that and nobody has ever,” he said.