Delta community workers demand formal employment from gas company
Workers in the Ogbeani community of Ndokwa West Local Government Council of Delta State have urged the state Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, to intervene in the alleged mistreatment by the management of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas company in Kwale.
The workers, in a letter addressed to the governor through their legal counsel, I. O. Omoyibo & Co, Barristers, Solicitors and Legal Consultants, lamented their lack of formal employment contracts.
They claimed that the firm was “going contrary to the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the people of Ogbeani and the provisions of the Local Content Act currently in force in Nigeria.”
The letter dated October 30, 2024, partly read, “It is our brief that since the inception of Kwale LPG, our clients have worked without employment letters. However, it pains our hearts to learn that strangers in the same company, particularly the Lagos-Man-Power do have juicy terms and condition of service clearly spelt out in their respective letters of employment.
“Today, the company hires and fires our clients anyhow. Our clients now work like animals not knowing their fate or what is before them since no employment letter was issued to them.
“Nonetheless, since the new minimum wage, the company also failed to implement same to better the lives of our clients whereas the strangers (supra) are well taken care of and all efforts to help resolve this issue amicably proved abortive.”
The workers also described what they termed “negligence” of the company against them as “a deliberate act designed to further enslave Ogbeani people on whose rich land the company operates.”
The letter stated, “The demand of our clients is simple, which is – give us employment letters – specifying the tend of our clients of service and improve the welfare our people others.”
According to a document forwarded to Saturday PUNCH, a MoU was signed on April 14, 2021 between Ashtavinayak Hydrocarbon Limited, a company incorporated in Nigeria which owns the LPG/IPP project located in Ogbeani community and the Community Development Committee and Community Accredited Contactmen Committee for and on behalf of the Ogbeani community.
“The objective and benefits of adopting this governance model of this MoU is to empower and encourage the community to determine, implement and execute by 15 per cent shall accrue to the community, women, youths and the CACC and the families in Ogbeani.
“The parties further agreed that the CACC will evolve a fair, transparent, objective and equitable mechanism to ensure the even spread of jobs among registered community contractors,” the document partly read.
Efforts to obtain comments from LPG General Manager, Murugesh K. S., were unsuccessful as he neither answered calls nor responded to a text message at the time of filing this report.
Similarly, CACC Chairman, LPG Kwale, Felix Ezute, did not respond to calls or a text message seeking his comment.
