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23 January, 2006
ICEM Nigerian affiliates NUPENG and PENGASSAN have threatened to pull all oil workers from the Niger Delta unless the government moves to improve security and rebel groups cease using violence to gain political ground. Since four expatriate workers were kidnapped on 11 January at the Shell-operated EA offshore field, a spate of attacks at other installations has killed 22 workers.
In a joint statement, NUPENG and PENGASSAN said, “If the restiveness and consequent harassment and violence on workers in the oil and gas industry persist, we shall not hesitate to withdraw our members in the various oil and gas companies operating in the region.”
The unions called on the government to urgently resolve tensions in an amicable way and to use peaceful means to secure the release of abducted oilmen. They also called on kidnappers to release the Shell contract workers, and demanded militia groups to stop the “violence unleashed in the Niger Delta on our members, leading to the loss of 22 lives, the taking of oil workers as hostages and the shutting down of a flow station in Benisede in Bayelsa State.”