JUST IN: DESOPADEC Shut Down Indefinitely, Management Meetings Relocated To Lagos

The Delta State oil Producing Area commission, (DESOPADEC) has been shut down indefinitely.

The shut down followed unabated protest by junior staff of the commission for days.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DESOPADEC, Olorogun Williams Makinde in a memo issued on Thursday night and obtained by BigPen Online, said following the illegal declaration of strike and violent behaviour of junior staff, the commission is hereby close till further notice.

BigPen Online however learnt that the management of the commission has  relocated its meetings to Lagos with intent to disperse the protesting workers who have crippled activities at the oil commission for four days running.

The management of oil commission had alleged that the protesters who are mainly junior staff went violent but the worker union led by John Osah insisted that the policemen deployed to the commission caused the chaotic situation when they shoot and teargassed the staff just to disperse the peaceful protesters.

Earlier report by this medium says the Makinde-led Management Team of the commission could not resolve the crisis which has been brewing since 2017 as at Thursday when a peace parley meeting was called in which all Directors of the commission including the Executive Director Finance and Administration, Bashorun Askia Ogieh was in attendance.

The protesters had pointed accusing fingers at Ogieh and Makinde as the arrowhead of the maladministration which the current board have been accused of.

Recalls that the protest which started on Tuesday turned bloody when a police security chief at the commission, ASP Lucas Medudu allegedly gave order to his colleagues to shoot and teargas the protesters at the Commission’s headquarters in Warri.

In the ensuing commotion, a police officer whose identified remain uncleared deployed to the commission was shot on his leg at closed range by his own colleagues and rushed to Warri Central Hospital from where he was later transferred to Delta state University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, Delta state where he is said to be battling with the leg injury.

BigPen Online reports that staff of the commission under the auspices of Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Technical and Recreational Service Employees( AUPCTRE), DESOPADEC branch had being protesting their work condition, deduction of salary arrears, non promotion of staff for ten years running among other issues.

The protesters had also accused the commission’s management of failure to approve 13 months allowances and other benefits due to them since 2010.

The protesting workers despite the close down have continued their protest at the commission’s headquarters along ever busy Warri/Sapele road in Warri, commercial nerve center of Delta state.

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