After over nine hours of intense negotiations, the high-level conciliation meeting between the Federal Government, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and the Dangote Group ended in a deadlock late last night, leaving the fate of over 800 sacked workers hanging in the balance and the ongoing nationwide industrial action unresolved.

The meeting, convened by the Federal Government to avert further disruption to Nigeria’s energy sector, was attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; the Minister of Labour and Employment, Alhaji Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi; PENGASSAN delegates led by its President, Comrade Festus Osifo; and top representatives of the Dangote Group.

Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Comrade Osifo expressed deep disappointment over the failure to reach an agreement, stressing that the union’s position remained firm on the immediate reinstatement of the 800 workers dismissed by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

“We have been here for nine hours trying to find a solution. We’ve had numerous deliberations, even breaking into smaller teams to explore all possible resolutions, but unfortunately, there is no solution tonight,” Osifo lamented.

According to him, the mass sack has placed the affected workers and their families in a dire situation.

“All we want is justice for the over 800 people who were sacked. These people are fathers and mothers, and their careers are now at stake. When you terminate people the way they have been terminated, it becomes extremely difficult for them to find jobs anywhere,” he explained.

Osifo added that some of those dismissed were trainees who had been accused of sabotage, a stigma he said could permanently ruin their careers in the oil and gas industry.

“If they go home like this, there is no other company in Nigeria that will employ them because they have been labeled saboteurs. These are careers that would be destroyed if a proper remedy is not put in place,” he stated.

Reiterating the union’s stance, the PENGASSAN leader declared that the strike continues until the workers are reinstated.

“Our position has been very clear: if you reinstate these people tonight, we will call off our action tonight. But, unfortunately, that reinstatement did not happen, and we were not able to reach a conclusion. So they have asked us to come back again by 2 p.m. today. We pray that God touches the heart of the capitalists, the hearts of the oppressors, to call our people back to work. Until then, the strike continues,” Osifo vowed.

Confirming the union’s claims, Osifo stressed that Dangote Group had admitted to dismissing the workers, pointing to official termination letters already circulating in the media.

“Dangote Group agreed that they dismissed 800 people, and the reason was stated in the letters. It cannot be falsehood because the letters are already in the media. What they stated is already public, and it was signed in a communication they released last Thursday,” he said.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Alhaji Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, who presided over the reconciliation session, acknowledged that the meeting had made progress but emphasized that the reinstatement of the sacked workers remained the primary stumbling block.

“We have agreed to reconvene today in the afternoon to continue the meeting,” Dingyadi announced.

“The reinstatement of the sacked workers is the only issue we are on. Apart from that, nothing else is lingering. We have made a lot of progress, the two main issues arebunionization and the reinstatement of the workers,” he added.

On his part, Mr. Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, expressed concern over the economic implications of the strike and the deadlock. He stressed that resolving the dispute was crucial to sustaining Nigeria’s fragile economic momentum.

“What is utmost in the minds of everybody: the public, the government, investors, and economic actors generally, is that we need to limit the danger of this action to the economy,” Edun said.

“We need to wrap it up, resolve it, and get workers back to work. We need gas flowing, we need crude flowing as input into production, which is critical to where the economy is right now. We don’t want that momentum to be broken, and that is why we were here for nine hours trying to resolve this issue. We are optimistic that later today we will be able to break the deadlock, resolve it, and put this behind us so the Nigerian economy can move forward,” he added.

The nationwide strike, which has disrupted operations in critical sectors, was declared by PENGASSAN following the mass dismissal of workers by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery. The union has insisted that until the sacked workers are reinstated, industrial action will continue, raising concerns about potential shortages of refined products and disruptions in gas supply. (Nigerian Tribune, but headline rejigged)