According to Dangote Group, the former Vice President, Devakumar Edwin, has reported that Dangote Petroleum Refinery has experienced 22 cases of sabotage since its inception.
In explaining the events, Edwin has made it clear that the recent restructuring of the company in which some employees are laid off had no relation with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN.
He was talking when he was on a visit to the refinery where Bubaraye Dakolo, the King of Ekpetima Kingdom and Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council led the tour.
Dangote Refinery affirmed that only a small number of workers were being dismissed on September 26. Nevertheless, PENGASSAN argued that it had fired over 800 workers because of a industrial wrangle between them and the refinery.
Dangote Refinery gave a reason that the layoff was due to the workers to protect the plant against repeat sabotage efforts that have raised safety issues and impaired its operational effectiveness.
On September 28, PENGASSAN recommended its members to go on a nationwide strike on the dismissals; the industrial action was however put on hold on October 1 after intervention of the federal government.
Dangote Group then pledged to transfer the terminated employees to other subsidiaries.
Responding to the allegation of PENGASSAN, Edwin claimed that the reorganisation was done due to the fact that the refinery had been targeted several times through sabotage.
In his opinion: We have been attacked several times as some people have already mentioned before. They said it will not even come up, originally, the refinery. Then they said it will not be commissioned and enter into production, I said.
We had passed through all those stages. Then they replied, alright, we have a problem with PENGASSAN which is absolutely good news. Owing to the fact that at the time we arrived and had a conference with the ministers and the security agencies, I stood up many times reiterating that we had nothing against PENGASSAN.
It was nothing to do with PENGASSAN and the reorganisation we did. We began experiencing cases of sabotage. We have 22 cases of sabotage.
“You are all aware. You have witnessed fires before, in Kaduna refinery and some of the other refineries. Attempted fire incidences were experienced.
I have got the dates, the unit in which it was done and the time when it was done. All are documented data. You have been to the master control room, and you know that all the data are captured entirely.
According to Edwin, ultra-modern systems at the Dangote Refinery ensured that the sabotage attempts did not affect its equipment.
He said: And like, equipment attempting to be brought down. There will be someone who opens a valve to attempt to determine whether it will break down. Luckily, however, through the benevolence of God, it is a most ultra-modern refinery.
So when a person fires somewhere, the fire system protection is so well that it is controlled immediately. Similarly, whenever they attempt to isolate an instrument by opening a valve or fiddling with some instruments, some other instrument takes over and halts. But it is documented.
And that is why we began to look at it, and then we were a little worried. Some one can simply take down a big shit. And much of the investment has been in-house.
This is the reason we did this great reorganisation. It is not about PENGASSAN or even dates or planning and I insist continuously that everything is different.
Edwin followed up with the fact that the sabotage against the investment in the refinery was a great concern saying that someone could easily cause a lot of damage, this being the reason why the massive reorganisation was carried out.
