The 22 oil workers arrested by officials of the Rivers State Government on the order of Governor Nyesom Wike have been freed.
The oil workers, detained at Elekahia Stadium, comprising 20 men and two women were on Thursday, arrested at Akwa Ibom-Rivers border for alleged breach of the lockdown order imposed by Wike to check further spread of the COVID-19 virus in the state.
They were heading to an oil facility in Bonny, operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN), a subsidiary of U.S. energy firm, ExxonMobil.
They were subsequently taken to a stadium where they were detained and awaiting arraignment.
Mr Lumumba Okugwagba, Secretary-General, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), confirmed the development on telephone on Sunday morning.
Okugwagba noted that PENGASSAN frowned at the detention and inhuman treatment meted out to the oil workers rendering essential services and issued an ultimatum to shutdown the oil industry if their members were not freed.
“We have information that our members have been freed and they are on their way out of the stadium, but we are monitoring their movement.
“These oil workers are Nigerians and the way they were treated and detained in a stadium is not decent at all, remember there are two women among them and you know the trauma they have gone through since Thursday.
“The union had given a notice of shutdown by midnight of Sunday, if the workers were not released, we do not understand why they should be held when the Federal Government says the oil industry was exempted from the lockdown.
“The Attorney General of Rivers just addressed them. He says the case against them has been dropped, they are no longer going to court and they should leave.
“The convoy is about to leave the stadium now (morning),” he said.
The resolution of the issue had doused fears of an industrial dispute over threats by oil industry workers’ union to shutdown the industry.
Contacted, Mr Ogechi Udeagha, the Manager in charge of Public and Government Affairs, MPN, said the oil firm had no comments on the development at this time.
