The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has accused the Dangote Group of attempting to impose “slavish conditions” on workers, insisting that its nationwide strike will commence today, Monday, September 8, 2025, despite counterclaims by a rival drivers’ association.
In a strongly worded joint statement issued on Sunday in Abuja, NUPENG President, Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, said the strike is in protest against Dangote Refinery’s refusal to allow drivers of its newly imported Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) trucks to join trade unions of their choice.
According to the statement, members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG will suspend lifting petroleum products from depots nationwide once the strike begins.
The union also dismissed a counter-statement credited to Barrister Enoch Kanawa, who signed on behalf of the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association (DTCDA), asking Nigerians to ignore NUPENG’s directive. NUPENG described the DTCDA as a management creation designed to undermine the union’s statutory mandate.
“The attention of the leadership of NUPENG has been drawn to a news report on ARISE Television on Saturday night, 6th September 2025, and in some daily newspapers, of some unidentified persons and group of people calling themselves Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association (DTCDA) asking Nigerians to disregard our alert on the withdrawal of services by Petroleum Tanker Drivers,” the statement read.
The union urged the public and the media to disregard the DTCDA, which it claimed was compulsorily imposed on Dangote drivers instead of allowing them to join NUPENG, the only legally recognized union for tanker drivers.
“The signatory to the statement of DTCDA, one Enoch Kanawa, is a lawyer, not a tanker driver,” the statement added.
NUPENG alleged that the association was floated by Alhaji Sayyu Aliu Dantata, owner of MRS, and Alhaji Aliko Dangote to control drivers recruited for the 10,000 CNG trucks being imported into the country.
“DTCDA was originally meant to be Dangote Transport Company. Its registered office is at 2, Tincan Island Port Road, Apapa, Lagos, the same official address of MRS Energy Limited,” the statement alleged.
The union also highlighted Kanawa’s history in the transport sector, noting that he served as Executive Secretary of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) between 2001 and 2012 before becoming Legal Adviser to MRS Energy Limited. In 2019, he contested for the presidency of NARTO with the backing of Sayyu Dantata but was defeated by the current President, Alhaji Yusuf Othman.
“These facts are to show without doubt and beyond controversy that the DTCDA is a management-inspired association and the news was created by the agents of Alhaji Sayyu Aliu Dantata to create confusion and misinformation. There is no division in our ranks and file, our solidarity remains constant!” NUPENG declared.
Accusing Dangote Refinery of attempting to deny workers their fundamental rights, the union vowed not to yield.
“Slavery ended centuries ago, but some unscrupulous capitalists are making efforts to bring it back. Any worker who cannot exercise the right of association is no better than a slave. Ordinary Nigerians should neither encourage nor support slavish working conditions,” the statement concluded.
