By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA – THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has kicked against the non-inclusion of labour leaders in the oil and gas sector who participated actively in the June 12 struggle.

Recall that during the joint session at the National Assembly, President Bola Tinubu recognised many Nigerians who participated actively in the June 12, 1993, struggle, including a veteran labour leader and Secretary General of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Comrade Frank Ovie Kokori.

Chief Kokori was confered with a posthumous award of Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON.

Tinubu also honoured other notable pro-democracy figures like late Kudirat Abiola, Humphrey Nwosu, literary icon Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, among several others.

While commending the President for the honour, PENGASSAN expressed dismay that some other comrades, especially from the oil and gas sector, who were at the forefront of the struggle, were not recognised.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, the national President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Festus Osifo, said other figures in the oil and gas industry at the time were equally instrumental in the 26 years of unbroken democracy being celebrated in the country today.

Osifo specifically mentioned a former President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Gani Owodunni and former Secretary General, Milton Dabibi, as names that were conspicuously missing in the honours lists, despite their pivotal roles in the pro-democracy struggles.

The PENGASSAN President, who doubles as President of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, said, “We must first of all commend Nigerians for 26 years of unbroken democracy, we salute Nigerians for being resilient in the last 26 years. We salute the courage of an average Nigerian citizen. We say well done, irrespective of the hardship, the challenges and difficulties we all face, we have emerged stronger and stronger.

“As we listened to Mister President delivering the Democracy Day address to the joint section of the National Assembly and going through the roll call of people that were vanguard of June 12, to drive away the military back to barracks, we saw some names that we were quite happy about, because really those names he mentioned, they were people that we could reckon with, that stood for what was right.

“We are quite happy that in the oil and gas industry, a posthumous award was given to Chief Frank Kokori, the former Secretary General of NUPENG. But we were a bit taken aback that some of the veterans in PENGASSAN who were strong advocates and heroes of June 12, were missing from the list, among them is the former President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Gani Owodunni and Comrade Milton Dabibi.

“In fact, it was because they stood their ground to ensure that what was right was done. If you remember, PENGASSAN was proscribed in 1994 because there was a strike that was going on at the time, and they were pushed to call off the strike. The Abacha government pushed them consistently to call off the strike, but they refused. That was due to the doggedness of Comrades Owodunni and Dabibi.

“So we hereby call on the government to do the needful by also recognising these our leaders, who were true heroes of June 12”.