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PENGASSAN demands salary benchmark for oil workers

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The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has called for a salary benchmark for oil and gas workers.

Festus Osifo, the union’s national president, made this call at the second edition of the PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Submit on Monday in Abuja.

The three-day event was titled ‘Petroleum Downstream Deregulation and Gas Utilisation, for a Sustainable Energy Future in Nigeria’.

Mr Osifo said the call was imperative due to the recent policy direction by the federal government. He said the policy by the government included the PMS subsidy removal and the floating of the naira-dollar exchange rate.

“Part of the decisions of floatation has only benefited the government and the oil and gas companies in Nigeria. This has necessitated a call for salary benchmark for oil and gas workers, aligning with the instrument of trade of oil and gas commodity,” noted Mr Osifo.

He, however, said in Angola, legislation pegged workers’ salaries in dollars and paid them the legal tender equivalent. Mr Usifo said the Angola template was a testament to the possibilities of safeguarding the interests of workers amidst currency fluctuations.

He added that the floating of the naira in the official market had exacerbated the challenges faced by our workers.

“We must explore innovative solutions to restore financial losses to workers by preventing undue gains to oil companies and ensuring a fair and equitable environment for all. PENGASSAN will do all it can to push for this just and equitable distribution across its branches,” the PENGASSAN leader explained.

Mele Kyari, NNPC boss, said despite challenges, the country was already witnessing some positive outcomes of the subsidy removal. He said most construction companies had started returning to sites as more resources became available to execute projects.

According to him, by 2024, Nigeria will become a net exporter of refined petroleum products based on ongoing policy interventions by the present administration.

“The meaning of this is that we will have sufficient volumes in-country. When we refine locally, we do have advantages. That is by creating wealth, creating taxes, and all forms of value chain, creating employment, and so on and so forth,’’ Mr Kyari stated.

11 Americans dead in Hamas, Israel violent confrontation, says Biden

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At least 11 Americans have died in bloody violence in Israel, President Joe Biden said on the third day since Palestinian militants launched a stunning and complex surprise attack in Israel.

In a statement, Mr Biden described the deaths as the “heart-wrenching” results of an “appalling terrorist assault against Israel.”

He said the U.S. believed that the Hamas militant group was likely holding American citizens as prisoners. He added that the U.S. is working with Israel to handle the hostage crisis.

“This is not some distant tragedy,” the president said in his statement. “The ties between Israel and the United States run deep. It is personal for so many American families who are feeling the pain of this attack,” the president added.

The identities of the dead Americans were not immediately released, and it was unclear if any were from New York, home to about 1.6 million Jews.

In New York City, there was a heavy police presence at synagogues on Monday.

Major U.S. airlines have cancelled flights into and out of Israel.

According to a count by Rep Grace Meng’s office, at least 50 New York residents were seeking to return from Israel on Monday.

The State Department said it was in contact with the families of the dead Americans.

More than 1,300 people have already been reported dead in the conflict, escalating Monday as Israel ordered an intense retaliatory assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

According to the Israel Defence Forces, at least 700 people have died in Israel.

The Palestinian death toll was 687, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.

Ms Meng, a Democrat representing much of central and eastern Queens, wrote a letter to the State Department asking it to “use all resources at its disposal” to help Americans in Israel return to the U.S.

A spokesman for Ms Meng, Jordan Goldes, said a “handful” of Ms Meng’s constituents were in Israel.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat, said in a statement late Sunday night that he had been briefed on the rising American death tally – then four – and that it would rise.

“The viciousness and brutality of this unprecedented attack from Hamas targeting innocent civilians – children, families, seniors – is overwhelming and heart-wrenching,” added Mr Schumer, who is Jewish and is currently on a trip to China.

Mr Schumer met with China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday and urged China to stand with the U.S. in a united front supporting Israel, Mr Schumer’s office said.

Mr Schumer’s spokesman, Angelo Roefaro, said the majority leader convinced Xi to strengthen a statement opposing violence against civilians in Israel.

Biden quizzed in classified documents probe

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US President Joe Biden has been questioned as part of an investigation into the handling of classified documents found at his home and former private office, the White House said Monday.

The 80-year-old Democrat voluntarily gave the interview on Sunday and Monday, at a time when the president was also dealing with the fallout of a deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The US attorney general appointed a special counsel in January to look into the handling of the secret files, which dated from Biden’s time as vice president under President Barack Obama and immediately afterwards.

“The president has been interviewed as part of the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur,” White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement.

“The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday.”

Sams added: “As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation.”

He referred further questions to the Justice Department.

US media said the fact that Biden himself had been interviewed showed that the investigation was likely nearing its end. Special Counsel Hur’s team had previously carried out extensive interviews among Biden’s staff, ABC news said.

The probe involves documents found in the possession of Biden, who was vice president under Obama when the papers were removed from the White House.

Records were first unearthed in a private think tank office, where Biden used to work in Washington after his time as vice president, in November 2022.

– ‘Nothing there’ –
More documents were found in the president’s Wilmington, Delaware garage — next to his Corvette sports car — on December 20. Another set of files was then discovered in his home library on January 12.

Back in January, Biden dismissed the probe, saying there was “nothing there.”

But mushrooming scandals over the handling of secret files have become an unexpectedly big issue in the 2024 US presidential elections.

Former president Donald Trump, Biden’s likely Republican opponent next year, separately faces trial over the alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.

The special counsel in that case, Jack Smith, says Trump allegedly took classified documents to his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida and refused to return them.

Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty in June to charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The prosecutor in that case has asked for a 2024 trial, one of a number that Trump faces on various charges which include trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

And Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, revealed in January that he too had uncovered documents marked as classified at his home.

Republicans have been trying to draw parallels between the Trump and Biden document cases, crying foul over what they say is special treatment meted out to the current president.

Biden and his family meanwhile face a host of their own legal issues, which threaten to add to concerns about the Democrat’s low approval ratings and his age.

Republicans have launched an impeachment investigation over his son Hunter’s business dealings with Ukraine and China, claiming without having shown any evidence so far that Biden senior benefited from them.

Hunter Biden meanwhile faces yet another special counsel probe into tax fraud and gun possession.

Tinubu appoints Fela Durotoye, 4 others to serve in presidential media team

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Fela Durotoye will serve as Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Values and Social Justice.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Fela Durotoye and four others to serve in the media and publicity directorate in the office of the president.

The was announced in a statement by Special Adviser to the President, Ajuri Ngelale on Monday, October 9, 2023.

Their appointments according to the presidency is in line with the tenets of Nigeria’s federal character principle and the supremacy of merit.

The appointees are Fela Durotoye, Fredrick Nwabufo, Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe, Aliyu Audu and Francis Adah Abah.

Durotoye was appointed as Senior Special Assistant to the President  on  National Values and Social Justice while Nwabufo was named Senior Special Assistant to the President  on  Public Engagement.

While Akhigbe was appointed as Senior Special Assistant to the President  on  Strategic Communications, Audu was named as Special Assistant to the President on  Public Affairs, and Abah would serve as Personal Assistant to the President on Special Duties.

The statement added that the “President further approved the secondment of Linda Nwabuwa Akhigbe to serve as the Communications Adviser to the President of the ECOWAS Commission.”

The presidency advised the appointees to uphold the highest standards of decorum and decency in their engagements with all members of the public.

Durotoye is a motivational speaker who contested for presidency in the 2019 presidential election.

NNPC boss Kyari insists FG has stopped paying fuel subsidy

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The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Malam Mele Kyari says that the Federal Government is no longer paying subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.

He said that contrary to insinuations on social media, the federal government was no longer paying subsidy to any person or group for bringing petroleum products into the country.

“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market.

“We understand why marketers are unable to import. We hope that they begin to do so very quickly and these are some of the interventions government is making. There is no subsidy,’’ he said.

Kyari further stated that the pockets of low queues witnessed across some states recently were due to bad roads that had made transporters to divert the product to other routes.

“We have seen in very few states pockets of very low queues. This is not unconnected with the road situation and that’s why we’re seeing some blockades on our roads.

“Moving the products from the southern depots into the northern part of the country takes them much longer time now than it used to be.

“They have to re-route their trucks around many locations for them to be able to reach their destinations and that created delays and some supply gaps. But, that has been filled and we do not see any of such problems again.

“Secondly, because of the full deregulation that we have in this sector, marketers are now competing amongst themselves,” Kyari maintained.

The NNPCL group managing director also said that some of the queues were caused by the preference of customers to patronise filling stations that offered low prices.

“You must have noticed that some fuel stations will reduce their prices by N2 or N3. So customers will naturally run to the places where you have that reduction in prices and probably create panic.

“This is because those who don’t know why they are doing it will think that there’s something happening or that there’s an ominous sign of scarcity," he added.

According to him, there are over 1.4 billion litres of petrol available for local consumption, both on the seas and on land, adding that there is no cause for alarm.

Kyari explained that market forces were now playing out and that marketers were competing for the product and how to satisfy their customers as well.

"There are few issues we’re engaging them to resolve, alongside other agencies of government, particularly critical issues around access to foreign exchange.

“And as you all know, government is doing so much to ensure supply of forex into the market.

“We know that this FX markets will stabilise the current I&E window is around 770.

“And we know that those inputs from government will crystalise and they will come to an equilibrium position in the FX market and this is the dream of this country," he said.

Kyari assured marketers of a stable forex and a situation where the prices of the product would align with the prices of other commodities.