Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the Dangote Group said it redeployed sacked workers of the refinery to various states across Nigeria as part of the company’s broader strategy to strengthen operations at its project sites.
The refinery has implemented the agreement it reached PANGASSAN by re-employing the sacked engineers.
However, their redeployment to Maiduguri in Borno State; Zamfara, Benue, among other states outside of Lagos has been generating ripples amidst allegations of victimisation.
Vice President, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin told Daily Trust that the redeployment exercise was not an act of victimisation, as some had alleged, but rather a strategic move to place them where the company currently has active projects fully owned and managed by the group.
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He eiterated that there was nothing like victimisation when it was glaring that those workers sabotaged the refinery’s operations.
He said, “We are encouraging all our local professionals to move to our project sites — to Maiduguri, Zamfara, Benue, Sokoto, Kaduna, Bayelsa, and other places.
“For instance, we have rice projects in Sokoto, Kogi, and Zamfara; concrete road projects in Maiduguri, Kaduna Bypass, and Bayelsa; and a coal mining project in Benue. We are simply moving our people to where we have ongoing operations.”
He added that while some subsidiaries of the Dangote Group, such as the salt and sugar companies, are public limited companies (PLCs) with their own salary structures and management systems, the redeployed workers are being absorbed into project companies wholly owned by the group.
“These project companies are 100% owned by us, and that allows us to manage them directly while ensuring that salaries are protected.
“No one has had their pay reduced. Even when some teams stopped work around the third week of September, we continued paying their salaries.”
800 new Engineers to replace redeployed workers
Devakumar also confirmed that 400 new engineers have already joined the refinery, with another 400 set to come on board soon.
The move, he said, follows the redeployment of certain personnel in “critical areas” where the management had detected acts of sabotage.
“We had to move some people where we noticed issues of sabotage. The new engineers are coming in to fill those gaps,” he stated.
“We are conducting more stringent background checks and have already begun their training.”
The Dangote VP disclosed that the company has partnered with UOP (Universal Oil Products), a U.S.-based refinery technology firm, to provide intensive training for the new engineers.
“We are bringing in simulators, just like those used to train aircraft pilots, so that our engineers can learn and practice without risk,” he said, adding, “Once the simulators arrive, the training process will become even more effective.”
Devakumar emphasized that the redeployment and recruitment initiatives are part of the company’s broader strategy to ensure operational excellence across its diverse industrial and infrastructure projects nationwide.
