Election Petition: PENGASSAN Vows to Hold Judiciary Accountable

•Gives conditions to back withdrawal of petrol subsidy

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has said it would work collaboratively with other labour unions and civil society groups in the country to ensure that the various tribunals deliver justice on the election petitions to the satisfaction of all.

Also, against the background of renewed move by the federal government to remove petrol subsidy, the oil workers’ union  said its members would only accept the policy reform if government restores local refining capacity and was able to build adequate trust and commit to the implementation of palliatives to cushion effect of the policy.

Speaking at the meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of PENGASSAN, its President, Festus Osifo, said the union was disappointed with the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.

He said despite the billions of taxpayers’ money budgeted for the conduct of the general election, INEC failed in meeting the expectations of Nigerians.

Osifoh, who is also the President of the Trade Union Congress,  said one of the major flaws of the 2023 general election was the failure to use the BVAS in uploading results into IRev.

“Nigerians hailed the introduction of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) as the game changer.

“Despite all the sacrifices made by ordinary Nigerians to go out and wait in long queues to obtain their PVCs, strenuously cast their votes and the billions of taxpayers’ money budgeted for the conduct of this election, INEC failed in meeting the expectations of Nigerians.

“This failure on the part of INEC to upload results from polling units to IReV portal, climaxed an election that was challenged by late arrival of INEC personnel and materials in some areas, by pass of BVAS in some cases, suppression of results, outright voters’ intimidation and coercion in many instances.”

“Despite the shortcomings, we hereby appeal to all those aggrieved by the election to follow the provision of the law in seeking redress.

“The various tribunals must be charged to deliver justice to the satisfaction of all as the last hope of the teeming masses of the country,” he said

On the government’s proposal to remove petrol subsidy, Usifoh said the union had already deliberated on the issue and was of the believe that the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry would actually grow much more if that sector is deregulated.

He said the union reasoned that continuing with the fraudulent subsidy regime was hurting the economy adversely.

However, Usifoh said TUC’s position on subsidy removal was also that there should be some basic things that government must fix, such as the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.

Speaking on plan to remove petrol subsidy, Usifoh said:  “If you look at the subsidy, at times we tend to be trying to hold on to something why we are losing in some other areas.

“If you look at the cost of living, it has gone up drastically by over three to four times in the last two to three years. If you look at the reason why the cost of living has actually moved to where it is today, it is actually because of the fact that our exchange rate has plummeted.

“If we address this, the Nigerian government will earn more money from the crude oil sales and that money will go into to CBN, here it will shore up our reserves and it will support a lot of other imports and the pressure on dollars will be reduced and so when this happens, our naira will appreciate,” he said.

He said that removal of petrol subsidy will have positive impact on the foreign exchange which would in turn have impact on the citizens.