The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has ordered its members across the country to withdraw services in response to the dismissal of over 800 workers at the Dangote Refinery.
Following an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council on September 27, 2025, PENGASSAN’s general secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, issued a directive accusing Dangote Refinery of flouting Nigeria’s labour laws, the Constitution, and International Labour Organisation standards by terminating workers for allegedly being union members.
The union also alleges that the sacked staff have been replaced by “over 2,000 Indians,” calling this move “an affront to all workers in Nigeria.”
To enforce its demands, the union ordered field personnel to halt operations starting at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 28.
From Monday, September 29, the strike was to expand into a nationwide shutdown of services across all offices, companies, agencies, and institutions.
The only exceptions allowed would be actions necessary to protect personnel or assets, pending approval from PENGASSAN’s national secretariat.
The union also urged branches of international oil companies (IOCs) to scale down gas production and stop supplying gas and crude to the Dangote facility, while calling on the government and stakeholders to intervene.
In the union’s view, the matter transcends an individual dispute: “An injury to one is an injury to all.”
Dangote Refinery, for its part, has denied executing a mass layoff and claims the actions taken were part of an internal restructuring aimed at improving efficiency. Management insists most of its workforce remains Nigerian.
If fully carried out, PENGASSAN’s strike could severely disrupt the refinery’s operations and reverberate through related segments of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
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