Fifteen staff members of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority have taken the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria to court over their suspension and the appointment of a caretaker committee for the NMDPRA branch in Abuja.
The case, filed at the National Industrial Court in Abuja with suit number NICN/ABJ/307/2025, has the fifteen members suing on behalf of themselves and other concerned members of the NMDPRA branch.
They are seeking a court declaration that under the PENGASSAN Constitution 2022, the affairs of a branch cannot be run by a caretaker committee for more than three months without conducting an election.
Those listed as defendants include PENGASSAN, its National President Festus Osifo, General Secretary Lumumba Okugbawa, and members of the caretaker committee — Tony Izogba, Gbolahan Akinyo, Okechukwu Nwanko, Abba Safana, and Polycarp Ihejirika.
The lawsuit adds to the growing internal conflict within PENGASSAN, which recently suspended over 40 members of the NMDPRA branch. The union has also been facing similar disputes in its Shell, Chevron, and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) branches.
In a related matter, the National Industrial Court in Lagos recently ordered all parties involved in a leadership crisis at the Chevron branch of PENGASSAN to maintain peace. Justice Joyce Onugba-Damachi gave the order while hearing a case filed by seven Chevron senior staff challenging the dissolution of their branch executive committee and the installation of a caretaker committee.
The aggrieved staff described the appointment of caretaker committees as unconstitutional, undemocratic, and a violation of the union’s internal regulations.
