The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has tackled the Presidency over comments by Vice President Kashim Shettima condemning its industrial action over a rift with the Dangote refinery.

PENGASSAN told journalists on Monday that it would take the same action if its members were sacked again.

This comes as some individuals staged a protest in Kaduna, accusing PENGASSAN of attempting to sabotage the Dangote refinery.

PENGASSAN had last week shut down critical oil and gas facilities over allegations that Dangote refinery sacked 800 workers who joined the union. But the Dangote refinery said it only sacked a few workers who were sabotaging the facility, saying this was part of the company’s reorganisation.

But oil and gas workers embarked on a strike in defence of their colleagues, causing the nation's losses in oil and gas production as well as a drop in power generation.

The intervention of the Federal Government restored normalcy as PENGASSAN suspended the strike on Wednesday after the Dangote Group was asked to redeploy the sacked workers to other business units.

Despite the suspension of the strike that caused queues in filling stations, the price of cooking gas has yet to return to about N900 per kg, as it still sold for N2,000 in Lagos and other places as of Monday.

Reacting, the National President of PENGASSAN, Festus Osifo, said the nation was bigger than Dangote and the Presidency as well.

According to Osifo, PENGASSAN had a mandate to protect the jobs of its members sacked by the Dangote refinery for joining the association. This mandate, he said, would be discharged whenever the next arises.