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The nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) entered a critical phase after late-night peace talks with Dangote Refinery collapsed without an agreement. The dispute, which centres on the unionisation rights of refinery staff and truck drivers, has already disrupted fuel supply in several states, with filling stations shut down and transportation costs soaring. Despite hours of negotiation led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, both sides failed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, leaving the industrial action to continue.
NUPENG insists that Dangote must allow all categories of employees to unionise, accusing the company of seeking to \u201censlave Nigerians\u201d through monopolistic practices. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA), Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) have all joined the strike in solidarity. Their collective withdrawal of services has heightened fears of a prolonged shutdown across the downstream oil sector.
Labour leaders have accused Dangote Group representatives of arrogance, alleging that its negotiators walked out on government mediators and union officials. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have also threatened to mobilise nationwide solidarity actions if the dispute remains unresolved. TUC further alleged persistent anti-labour practices, intimidation, and denial of workers\u2019 rights within Dangote companies, vowing not to allow Nigerian workers to be \u201ctreated as slaves in their own country.\u201d
The fallout is already being felt nationwide. In states like Delta and Sokoto, residents queued at shuttered petrol stations as scarcity set in, while transport fares surged, leaving school children and commuters stranded. Union branches have warned that any filling station defying the strike directive will face heavy fines, further tightening supply. Meanwhile, NOGASA and NARTO warned that Dangote\u2019s direct distribution model could cripple existing operators, threaten thousands of jobs, and destabilise energy security.
As tensions escalate, calls have grown for President Bola Tinubu\u2019s intervention to avert a full-scale crisis. Labour leaders insist the right to unionise is a fundamental human right under Nigerian law and international conventions, while warning that refusal to recognise workers\u2019 rights at Dangote Refinery could trigger a wider shutdown of operations across the country\u2019s oil and gas industry. With talks set to resume, the standoff underscores the fragile balance between industrial peace, labour rights, and Nigeria\u2019s economic stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The nationwide strike declared by the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) entered a critical phase after late-night peace talks with Dangote Refinery collapsed without an agreement. The dispute, which centres on the unionisation rights of refinery staff and truck drivers, has already disrupted fuel supply in several states, with filling stations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/images-2025-09-09T093948.111.jpeg?fit=523%2C586&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18244,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18243\/revisions\/18244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}