Over five hundred support staff of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, on Friday blocked the entrance to the Federal Government establishment with a coffin in continuation of their protests with a demand that they be converted to permanent staff of the company.
The protesters said unless the Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC comes to resolve the matter, the company’s gate will remain shut, adding that this is the third time they’re staging a protest.
The support staff said their last protest was in May this year wherein the management assured that the conversion will be finalized by mid-June.
They said the NNPC seemed to have breached the agreement to facilitate their conversion to staff, pointing out that some of them have worked for 8 to 28 years as support staff.
This is coming as a “closed-door” meeting between representatives of the WRPC and the Community Relations Committee, CRC, of the host communities today ended in deadlock.
The meeting held at the NNPC Senior Staff Club, Warri with the Executive Director of Services, EDS, Dr. Francis Ololo Sokare wherein the WRPC management appealed for the suspension of the protest and another two weeks to enable them facilitate a meeting with NNPC officials, the Chief Operating Officer of Refineries in Nigeria and the CRC, in Abuja.
In a swift response, Community Relations Committee, CRC insisted that officials in Abuja should come and resolve the issue.
The Chairman of CRC Ijala-Ikeren, Adolphus Tosanwumi disclosed thus: “We told them that they should bring in the Abuja management of NNPC tomorrow, if the protest must stop.”
With the insistence of the support staff, Nigeria’s economy seems threatened especially with the continuous shutdown of operations of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, WRPC, in Delta State.
It would be recalled that the support staff had on Wednesday locked the entrance of the company, demanding their conversion to full staff.
