Ijaw group flays planned layoff of 450 oil workers

The Sun

The Ijaw Diaspora Council (IDC) has kicked against the planned layoff of over 450 staff of the Nigeria Agip Oil Company by Oando Energy Resources.

It said the move negated the collective agreement signed by the parties during the acquisition negotiations.

Anxiety over the fate of these staff, which the oil firm inherited from the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), heightened at the weekend.

Chairman of the Ijaw Diaspora Union, Prof Mondy Gold, in a statement, noted that terminating the personnel based on a 2025 half-year staff performance evaluation raises fairness and transparency issues.

“This decision appears to be in direct violation of the collective agreement signed during the acquisition negotiations between Oando, Eni, and the recognised staff association. During these negotiations, the management of Oando assured employees of job continuity rather than severance. The Group Chief Executive of Oando, Mr Wale Tinubu, reaffirmed this commitment to job security during a company-wide town hall meeting.

“However, Oando is now justifying the proposed mass termination on the basis of a 2025 half-year staff performance evaluation, in which over 70 percent of the workforce were reportedly rated below standard. IDC notes that this performance exercise raises questions of procedural fairness and transparency, particularly given: many of these employees have served an average of 15 years, contributing significantly to the company’s operational history.

“During periods of heightened insecurity in the Niger Delta, these same staff sustained operations when expatriate personnel had withdrawn. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they risked their lives to maintain the company’s production integrity and community relations,” the group stated.

The group noted that the former NAOC staff had continued to manage field operations and production performance across all major assets such that Oando Plc in its 2025 nine-month performance report credited “its 59 percent year-on-year increase in crude oil and gas production and 82 percent operational up-time to the successful consolidation of NAOC assets.”

The Ijaw group, then, wondered how the same workforce credited with delivering these improved outcomes was now being classified as underperforming.

IDC, therefore, urged that any action being taken should not undermine the principles of equity, federal character, and the long-standing partnership between host communities in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Delta States and the oil industry operating in the Niger Delta.

“IDC stands with the affected workers, host communities, and all stakeholders committed to fairness, corporate accountability, and the protection of livelihoods in the Niger Delta,” the group said.