Nigeria’s white-collar oil workers may stop work unless the government is able to produce a member of the union missing since the military attacked militants believed to have kidnapped him, a union leader said Wednesday.
Peter Esele, president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, or Pengassan, told Dow Jones Newswires: “We’re asking the government to produce him and if we don’t see him we will pull out our members.”
Esele said he is to meet Aug. 30 with the blue-collar National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers, or Nupeng, to discuss what action to take.
“Whatever we agree on will be carried out,” Esele added.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta – one of the region’s most prominent militant groups – said boats filled with Nigerian government forces ambushed its fighters late Sunday, killing 10 militants and injuring others.
The militant group said it was attacked as forces attempted to free a Nigerian worker of the Shell Petroleum Development Co., a joint venture led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN). The worker hasn’t been found.
Nigeria’s Punch newspaper Wednesday named the worker as SPDC community liaison officer Nelson Ujeya, who was kidnapped Aug. 8.
Up to 80,000 oil workers from both unions may be affected if strike action goes ahead.
Esele said the union was frustrated by the lack of information about the missing worker until news of the attack on his possible kidnappers emerged.
The union questioned why foreign oil workers in previous kidnappings had been released unharmed and yet a local worker appeared to have been caught in the firefight between militants and Nigerian government forces.
Earlier this year, leaders from both unions ruled out strike action, though Elijah Okugbo, general secretary of Nupeng, warned the unions would meet again if there wasn’t a quick resolution to the worsening security situation in the country’s oil and gas-rich Delta region.
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