Crisis in PENGASSON deepens, as members
tackle Chairman over high-handedness.
By our reporter
The crisis in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSON) has taken a new turn as members tackle the national president Mr Festus Osifo over alleged high-handedness and imposition of personal choices on the members.
Members of the union Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) who spoke to our Correspondent said that the National President is complicit in the irregularities in the branch of the union.
One of the members who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the branch has suffered leadership crisis for years and the President has deliberately refused to act and grant the members their wish of leadership based on popular choice.
“It is very unfortunate that the National President has decided to ignore our plight and cries all these whiles. When the tenure of the present exco expired and they refuse to hold election, we reached out to the national secretariat and wrote letters to them without result.
“Last week, the President sent a list of Five persons to serve as care taker committee to organise election. Sadly, the person he is fronting as the Chairman is his brother from Edo State who is a very controversial figure. For instance, this person, Mr Tony Iziogba has not been paying his dues until just this June when they perfected the plan of bringing him on board.
“The main issue now is that, we want a general election and not delegate elections. Yes, the constitution provides for both delegate and general elections but we want a general election so that whoever emerges will know that they won from popular votes and not some manipulations in the name of delegates.
“Unfortunately, the President is interested only in ensuring that he has his cronies take the key positions as a way of securing our branch delegates votes for the next national elections, completely ignoring how we feel. It is not fair” our source said.
Documents made available to our correspondent show that the aggrieved members wrote a complaint letter to the national secretariat and at some point, the National body promised to attend to their needs and urge non kinetic solutions to end the tensions.
