*** Call For Quick Intervention By NNPC
Indigenous pipeline survelliance contractors attached to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in charge of protecting NPSC system 2C pipelines carrying crude from refinery in WARRI Delta through Edo , Kogi to Kaduna Refinery have appealed to the management to pay their salary allowance of 18 months.
The security guards made this appeal at a peaceful protest held at the premises of theNigerian Pipeline and Storage Company (NPSC), Warri, Delta State.
The security guards, who are employees of MRS Oil and Gas Limited carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “17 Months No Salary Empty Belle,” “We Are Pipelines Community Security from Warri-Lokoja, Please We Need Our 17 Months Salaries,” “NNPC/MRS We Need Our Money!!!,” “NNPC/MRS, We Are Dying,” etc.
It will be recalled that workers of the private security guards under the auspices of ‘Pipeline Right of Way Surveillance Providers Forum’ had staged similar protests on January 3, 2019, blocking the entrance to the NNPC pump station at Awawa, Abaji Area Council, FCT and also Izom pump station, refusing entry to staff, petrol tankers and visitors.
Hon Ozizi Ibrahim, who spoke on behalf of the workers from Kogi state said, “We are here today to protest the non payment of our salaries for the past 17 months.
“Before coming here we have written several letters to the management of NNPC and MRS all to no avail. We even held a protest rally last month but still nothing happened. That is why we are here today. We are here today to ask them why they have not paid our salaries.”
Speaking on the outcome of the meeting they held behind closed doors with the management of NPSC, Ibrahim said that; “”They have just told us that they have paid the money to MRS. They also told us that in two weeks time, they are going to pay us our money. But if in the next two weeks, we do not see our money, we are going to come back again to demand our entitlements peacefully.”
Chief Afekelu Obeto, who represented the workers from Edo State, said that they have been working for MRS and for the past 17 months and they have not been paid.
He added, “Our boys are thinking that we have eaten their money and they are disturbing us. The month of fasting is fast approaching and they have to get prepared for the fasting period. How are they going to survive the fasting if they do not have money?”
Chief Benson Abonoko who represented the security guards from Delta State said, “MRS has refused to pay our money for the past 17 months. This is just a peaceful protest. The management of NNPC has promised to pay us in the next two weeks and we are waiting. If they fail to pay us at the end of two weeks, we are going to continue to protest and let the whole world know what we are passing through”.
He called on the government to intervene in order to resolve the dispute and forestall the breakdown of law and other.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of MRS Oil and Gas Limited, were futile as at the time of filing this report.
