Oil workers have resolved to continue their suspended strike should government fail to urgently convene a stakeholders� summit to address security issues in the Niger Delta.
President of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Peter Akpatason told Daily Champion weekend that the strike would have started in the New Year but for the acute scarcity of petroleum products in the market.
He said NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) had put off the strike in sensitivity to the impact on the Nigerian masses whose interest, he pointed out, the unions fight to protect.
According to him, the oil workers did not want to share in the blame of the fuel scarcity in the yuletide when Nigerians deserved the best fuel supply services.
He, however, said that trouble is not over until a comprehensive resolution is fully implemented to permanently address the security issues that have led to killings and taking oil workers to hostage.
He failed to disclose when the unions plan to resume the suspended strike.
Strike by the unions will not only affect output of crude oil into the export market and the income to the federation account, it will also cripple distribution of petroleum products in the domestic market and lead to acute fuel scarcity.
He accused government of publicizing the Niger Delta question while paying lip service to recommendations from well meaning stakeholders to resolve the impasse.
According to Comrade Akpatason who is working to succeed Mr Adams Oshiomhole as the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), it is the oil workers who get hurt and also feel the pulse of the host communities that attack the industry.
He said that there might be no peace in the Niger Delta until all issues of development of the region are resolved in a comprehensive stakeholders� committee.
Recommendations of such a committee, he added, must be immediately put to work before peace could return to the area.
According to him, reminders sent to government on the agreed summit have so far failed to attract its attention, leaving the oil workers with no other choice than to put arrangements in plan to resume the suspended strike.
He explained that the strike was not to protect the interest of the oil workers alone but to salvage the industry and millions of dollar investments staked by stakeholders.
Daily Champion reports that NUPENG and PENGASSAN had suspended their strike on the second day in deference to appeals by stakeholders.
The botched strike was to protest government�s reluctance to restore peace in the Niger Delta where hundreds of oil workers have been held hostage by local militants pressing for greater share of oil revenue and speedy development of the impoverished region.
Some four workers of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) are currently being held hostage by the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) in exchange for prominent Ijaw leaders held by the federal authorities for various offences.
TMEND has ruled out release of the hostages for ransom as in the past, threatening to kill all of them should federal troops attempt to rescue them by force.
When contacted on the issue, the Director of Media Relations in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr Peter Ogbonnaya, explained that the Niger Delta question was being addressed at government level given its seriousness.
He could not confirm definite actions government was taking, saying the ministry has not received any formal demand by the oil workers� unions.
Dr Ogbonnaya expressed the desire of the ministry to collaborate with other stakeholders in resolving Niger Delta impasse.