Oil workers have denied an allegation levelled against them by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, that they were the brains behind crude oil theft in the country.
They accused politicians and influential people of perpetrating the heinous act.
Reacting to a statement by the Leadership Newspaper of July 17, 2013 titled: “Oil workers are the ones stealing crude oil,” the workers under the aegis of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), described the statement as “unimaginable, unguided, mischievous and uncouth of a Presidential Adviser”.
The oil workers, through their unions, took serious exemption to such perturbing, cynical, alarming notion which they strongly believed was clownishly and flippantly discharged, unmindful of its implications and ramification
The workers alleged that criminal activities of crude oil theft are being perpetrated by highly placed and influential individuals and politicians, adding that Kuku “is only being economical with the truth and trying to cover up with his allegation against the workers.”
The unions asked the Federal Government to call to order the Special Adviser to the President against unguided and unsubstantiated provocative utterances in the interest of industrial peace and the respect for “our nation that seriously yearn for peace at this relatively volatile moment of our national life.”
They expressed their readiness to take up the Special Adviser to the President unless he substantiates his allegation, saying that the Joint Tax Force (JTF) should also help in unmasking those behind criminal act of crude oil theft and other national sabotage activities.
In a statement, PENGASSAN and NUPENG stated: “Kuku is only being mischievous. We challenge the authorities on its readiness to join forces with the national and states’ intelligence, defence and security agencies in the patriotic crusade to completely unearth and get to the bottom of this grievous international criminality and national calamity so that both the Nigerian public and international community, some of whom already know and relate with the culprits or the syndicates will not be deceived or fooled by people like Kingsley Kuku.
“Issues of pipeline sabotage, crude oil thefts, illegal bunkering and refining activities were part of the major issues discussed during our emergency joint National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja on July 2, 2013, and we (PENGASSAN and NUPENG) indeed solemnly reiterated our concern on these acts of sabotage and demanded that all inventions and machinations of criminal activities under whatever guise must be decisively smoked and wiped out.
“We equally demanded to be part of the high-powered committee of the Federal Government on this key mission which findings and recommendations must come with expedient action from appropriate authority to essentially restore and sustain confidence in the oil and gas operations and socio-economic security for the Nigerian people knowing that the industry is the lifeline of our economy.”
“PENGASSAN and NUPENG call on the Federal Government, especially President Goodluck Jonathan, to be weary of people like Kuku, who is always out to cause confusion and malign credible people and organisations that believe in the transformation agenda and efforts of present regime and have the interest of the Nigerian nation at heart.
“We wonder how anyone could imagine that Nigerian oil and gas workers would want to do something inimical to their job security and enrichment of their members’ potentials”.
The unions said that they would soon come out with a decisive plan of actions if the government refused to committedly and decisively tackle and stop the criminal acts of pipeline sabotage, crude oil thefts, illegal bunkering and refining and ensure that the perpetrators face the wrath of the law.
