15 NMDPRA Staff Drag PENGASSAN to Court Over Suspension, Caretaker Committee Appointment

Fifteen staff members of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) have taken the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to court over their suspension and the appointment of a caretaker committee to oversee the NMDPRA branch in Abuja.

The aggrieved employees, suing on behalf of themselves and as concerned members of the NMDPRA branch of PENGASSAN, filed a suit — NICN/ABJ/307/2025 — before the National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja.

In their application, they are asking the court to declare that, under the PENGASSAN Constitution (2022), no branch of the association can be administered by a caretaker committee for more than three months, within which a proper branch election must be conducted.

The defendants listed in the suit include PENGASSAN, its National President, Festus Osifo, General Secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, and caretaker committee members Tony Izogba, Gbolahan Akinyo, Okechukwu Nwanko, Abba Safana, and Polycarp Ihejirika.

The case marks a new chapter in the ongoing crisis within PENGASSAN’s NMDPRA branch, which has seen the suspension of over 40 members by the union’s national leadership. This dispute adds to a growing list of internal conflicts between PENGASSAN and some of its other branches, including those in Shell, Chevron, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

Similarly, the National Industrial Court in Lagos recently directed all parties in a separate leadership tussle at PENGASSAN’s Chevron branch to maintain peace pending determination of the matter. The order was issued by Justice Joyce Onugba-Damachi during a hearing involving seven Chevron senior staff who are challenging the dissolution of their branch executive committee and the installation of a caretaker committee.

It will be recalled that several staff members had earlier rejected the caretaker committee imposed by PENGASSAN’s National Secretariat on June 27, describing the decision as “unconstitutional, undemocratic, and a breach of the union’s internal rules.”

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