Sylvester Idowu in Warri
The support staff of Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) have accused the Refinery Coordinator, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPC) Limited, Mr. Bayo Adenrele, of working against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and trying to instigate violence against the administration.
The aggrieved workers claimed that Adenrele has stripped off royalties from host communities of WRPC, vowing that they can no longer tolerate the rubbishing of host communities.
Chairman of the support staff of WRPC, Dafe Ighomitedo, who spoke to newsmen at the entrance of WRPC Tuesday, during the continued protest of the support staff, said NNPCL had been telling the workers lies, upon lies since 2015.
Ighomitedo, stated: “This is the fourth week we have been here protesting for us to get our severance package, having the old contract expired 30th September. Unfortunately, it has been lies upon lies. We have been here since 2015 and this protest has been going on since 2015, but it always ends with deceit.
“The two palaces hosting this company (WRPC) went to Abuja, where they made promises to give the workers proper welfare. They laid off people and give us peanuts, we that remained, we’re still hopeful that someday, something good will happen, but no way. They told the masses that they are taking care of us, saying they are paying us N90,000 to N150,000. No pension, no medical, no transport, we don’t even have access to the plant clinic, when we are sick, it is so demeaning. We can no longer take it. We have been here since 5th October, till now they have not responded.
“The Refinery Coordinator (RC) for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bayo Adenrele, feels we are nobody and we have lost confidence in him. He has no integrity when it comes to the Support Staff of WRPC.
“He is working against this present government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is doing this to instigate violence against the president. We have been peaceful for so long. The community has been rubbished for too long and we can no longer take it. Bayo Adenrele has stripped the community of all royalties. This time around, it won’t be business as usual.”
Ighomitedo demanded to have a meeting with the Executive Vice-President, Downstream at NNPC Limited, Dr. Mumuni Dagazau, insisting that he should come down to Warri to address the protesting workers.
“We want to see the Executive Vice-President, Downstream at NNPC Limited, Dr. Mumuni Dagazau. He should come and address us, because the RC is rubbishing his office and staining the image of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Bayo Ojulari. RC is telling people that we are outsourced. We have our letters and document. We were employed directly. Our case is peculiar. The Acting MD right now was once a Support Staff that was later converted, but now nobody wants to convert us,” he said.
One of the support staff, Akivie Kingsley, who spoke in the same vein, stated: “It has been promises and failed promises, what this people are owing us, is what I can’t even speak out. We are entitled to every welfare, but their promises have gotten to the point that we can no longer take it.
“If we are going on leave, no leave allowance. We have people that are already dead; we have two corpses in the mortuary as we speak; we have marriages that are crashing because of lack of finance. Children are off school, because we cannot pay their school fees and the RC expects engineers like us, with vast experience, to keep working in this kind of environment, with N90,000 salary, it won’t work. We are done with this slave contract.”
Another support staff of WRPC, who is a Lab Technician, Benjamin Iwuno, lamented that he had put in over 13yrs in WRPC, stressing that all his service years has been taken for granted, being paid peanuts and no health benefit.
“How do you explain to the government that you have over 300 personnel working with you and none of them is pensionable? They can’t have access to basic healthcare. Some of my colleagues have died on duty, no compensation.
“Can the N90,000 take somebody with family home? The management is telling us that we don’t mean anything to them. How is it possible that my boss will write my job as his appraisal and I get nothing in return? It is painful. I want my rightful benefit working in oil and gas company,” Iwuno said.
For Harriet Charles, the story was not different, she wept while narrating her experience with the WRPC for the past 14 years.
“I have been here for the past 14years, I wasn’t like this, if you get to my house now, I don’t have TV, because N90,000 cannot get me TV. My children are in school but cannot pay their school fees. I go begging sometimes, because the money they are paying me is so meagre, people think I earn plenty money because I work in a refinery, where is the money?
“I have to buy soup from people selling soup to manage with my children. I have lost close friends working in the same department with me. I need my severance package, so I can be able to take care of my children. My house rent is due. We need this money, we are dying,” she added.
The aggrieved workers carried banners with inscriptions such as ‘EVP Downstream, Dr. Mumuni Dangazaun, must act now’; ‘The RC, Engr. Bayo Adenrele, Has No Integrity’; ‘WRPC Support Staff were never outsourced, but employed directed by WRPC’ and ‘No EVP Downstream, No discussion.’