The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has berated Adams Oshiomhole, the senator representing Edo North Senatorial District, over remarks criticising a recent strike by oil workers, describing him as “the Judas Iscariot of Nigerian trade unionism.”
Penpushing reports that the labour group in a statement signed by its President, Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale stated that Oshiomhole’s stance on the matter amounts to a gross distortion of established labour laws.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) accused him of taking sides with capitalists, stressing that the lawmaker’s action betrayed the very principles he once espoused as a labour leader.
“His attempts to rationalise the victimisation of workers for exercising their fundamental rights of association and peaceful action are not only nauseating but represent a flagrant misrepresentation of Nigerian Labour Law and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions’, the statement reads.
Penpushing further reports that the body accused him of clinging to power during his days as a unionist, adding that he falsely claimed to have resigned as the general secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria when he took over as Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) President.
The association citing Section 31 of the Trade Union Act, which it said supports strikes that are declared on sympathetic grounds, argued that Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN’s) decision to join forces with the dismissed staff is a protected legal action.
“Indeed, how would a person who once advised alleged corrupt politicians to join the APC to have their sins forgiven have the effrontery to sermonise on morality?” NUPENG stated in its reaction’, the statement stated
Penpushing also reports that Oshiomhole had on October 3, 2025 in a television news argued that the nationwide strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) over the dismissal of 800 indigenous staff at the Dangote Refinery was hasty and unfair to other workers. The Senator argued that while the right of the industrial union is “a God-given right, the decision to turn the conflict into a full-blown strike stands the risk of hurting others not involved in the conflict.
“What I’m not sure is right is the ease with which PENGASSAN resorted to escalating the matter to a secondary level, what you call the secondary solidarity, to a point of shutting down the oil sector. I think that it is to protect a particular set of workers, you do not then risk the job of several other workers’, Oshiomhole said.
Penpushing reports that the former President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) equally declared that the union should have considered the far-reaching consequences of its actions on ordinary Nigerians.
The Senator, who broke into limelight as a vociferous and sometimes combative national union leader during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, served as the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) between 1999 and 2007.
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