- As Avengers bomb SPDC facilities in Delta, ensuring Massive spill
Both the ENL Consortium and the Dockworkers Union of Nigeria (DUN) have washed their hands off the group of Dockworkers who yesterday staged a protest at the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Headquarters in Marina, Lagos.
While the ENL Consortium, operator of Terminals C and D of the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa’s Legal Adviser, Barrister Uzamot Boye, outrightly disowned them as not being members of its staff, the DUN President Comrade Adewale Adeyanju said they were misguided
“All our staff were at their duty posts inside the Port, carrying out their various tasks at the time of the protest”, indicated Uzamot Boye, pointing out that those who protested were most likely to be those who had since been disengaged from the port and who have been paid their terminal benefits.
“It is malicious to say our dockworkers protested. It is not true. All our workers are at work. Those who protested were those who have since been disengaged from the port and who have been paid their terminal benefits. You can verify this from the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).
“All our workers are at their duty post as we speak. They are happy on their jobs. They are all very busy,” Boye said, pointing out that the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) would have issued notice and been in the forefront of the protest if the protesters were genuine port workers.
It would be recalled that the same set of people had carried out similar protest in the past at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) headquarters in Apapa but were told that they had been disengaged from service and due allowance paid to them.
“ENL Consortium is a people-focused organisation. We empower our people and enable them to be the best. Our Executive Vice Chairman/CEO places the welfare of workers above every other consideration,” he said.
Shedding light on the protesters however, the President, Dockworkers Branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju confirmed that the protesting dockworkers have been disengaged from the port and paid their entitlements as stipulated under the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) agreement, warning against the return of thuggery at the port.
Adeyanju said issues affecting maritime labour must be discussed at the table with employers, rather than the resort to the arm-twisting tactics of the past.
He said the payment of gratuity to disengaged dockworkers happened for the first time in the history of the maritime industry in the country this yea, a development which highlights a big plus for both the union and terminal operators.
“For the past 30 to 40 years, we have not had anything like terminal benefit for dockworkers and it is under our administration that we are getting what a responsible dockworker ought to get. It is a starting point in the industry,” Adeyanju said.
He said the dockworkers that elected to leave the service of their employers were misguided on what they were entitled to collect as retirement benefits.
He said, “This has never happened before and I think someone is inciting these dockworkers by saying they are entitled to thirty three thousand naira a month plus the amount of tonnage they stevedore. But you this is not correct. There is a tonnage operation and there is time-related wages, which stands for permanent employment. And I think there is a mix up somewhere and I have addressed all of them to let them know that we have permanent staff and people that are on tonnage. You are paid on a daily basis on the amount of tonnage that you stevedore.”
In the meantime, the dreaded militant group, Niger Delta Avengers, have once again blown up crude oil trunkline belonging to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in Batan, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.
It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 12.05am on Monday.
The fresh attack happened around Camp 3, few kilometres away from the spot where the militants had recently also attacked oil installations early this month.
It took soldiers over five hours before finally confirming the attack.
Findings revealed that a technical team from Pipelines and Product Marketing Company drafted to the spot could not curtail the spill as of 4.32pm, as crude was said to still be gushing out of the attacked pipeline.
Sources from the community, who confirmed the attack to our correspondent, said soldiers had a difficult time locating the attacked pipeline because of it remoteness in the swamp of Batan.
The sources said the militants shot sporadically for some minutes before detonating devices to blow up the pipeline.
A top military officer confirmed the attack when contacted by our correspondent, saying his men had a hard time identifying the spot as it was too remote for military personnel to easily access.
The Chairman of Batan Community, Dickson Ogugu, when contacted, confirmed the incident and appealed to the militants to halt their hostility on oil installations in the region especially within the Batan axis.
Ogugu, who lamented the spate of attacks on oil facilities within the region, urged the militants to accept the offer of dialogue that the Federal Government was offering them in the interest of peace.
He lamented that his kinsmen could no longer go for fishing which was their main occupation, thereby leading to lack and hunger among the people.
A PPMC source, who confirmed the incident to our correspondent, said that the pipeline which served the Warri refinery and Forcados had just been fixed after the militants attacked it about three weeks ago.
Although the militant group had yet to take responsibility for the attack, the industry source added that the pipeline only resumed supply of crude few days ago before being attacked again on Monday.
It added that the spill was enormous, making it hard for the technical/maintenance team deployed to the spot to curtail it.
The spokesperson for the 4th Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Benin, Edo State, Capt. Musa Maidawa, could not respond to enquiries as of the time of filing this report.
But the Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command, SP Celestina Kalu, confirmed the attack.
“There was something of that nature at Camp 3 in Batan community. It happened around 0030hrs of today (Monday),” Kalu’s brief text message to our correspondent read.
Additional report from Punch
