A coalition of women groups under the umbrella of Women in Trade Alliance (WOTA) has threatened to embark on nationwide protests against the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) over what it described as an attempt to frustrate the operations of Dangote Refinery.
PENGASSAN declared a strike yesterday, but the group said the industrial action targeting Dangote Refinery was unnecessary and anti-people.
WOTA said it was part of the plans by “oil cabals to draw Nigeria back to the days of rising prices and uncontrollable market manipulations.”
Speaking in Jos yesterday, the group’s secretary, Mrs Dorothy Ishaya Ninret, warned that Nigerian women would not hesitate to take to the streets if trade unions continued what she described as “undue and selfish interference” with investments that had helped reduce fuel prices.
She said, “In the face of the ongoing industrial action against the Dangote Refinery, we are calling on the government to urgently call the unions to order before they drag Nigeria back to the dark days of market manipulation and unbearable fuel prices.”
The coalition recalled that since 2024, the Dangote Refinery had consistently reduced prices of petroleum products, helping Nigerians cope with the harsh economic realities following the removal of fuel subsidy.
“Anyone trying to frustrate Dangote’s intervention is trying to frustrate all of us,” Ninret said.
She continued, “These same unions were part and parcel of the moribund government-owned refineries. They don’t care if the refineries work; they only want to protect their narrow interests.
“How long will the government allow these greedy unionists to hold businesses, investors and the entire country hostage?”
WOTA urged the government and other critical stakeholders to resist what it described as “gang-ups” against Dangote Refinery, insisting that the company’s efforts had provided Nigerians with the only real relief since the subsidy removal.
