31 July 2013, Lagos – Nigeria’s epileptic power supply may get worse as some protesting oil workers at the Nigeria Agip Oil Company, NAOC, at Okpai, in Ndokwa East Local Council of Delta State, have laid down tools.
NAOC operates Okpai gas plant, which supplies gas to the 480 megawatts power plant located in the community. Their spokesman, Mr. John Anochie, explained that they were initially placed on a monthly salary of N67,000 under a condition called “Labour Services” but were shocked in July last year when their wages were slashed to a paltry N30,000 per month, which the company also withheld for over six months.
According to them, Agip also deprived them access to Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, medical facilities, eating at the members of staff canteen as well as Christmas and New Year break and bonuses.
Numbering over 50 and mainly in the junior cadre, the workers said they were being enslaved by the company, and that the “inhuman treatment” was targeted at the indigenous workers from the host communities.
– The Guardian
