By Charles Pemu 
Abuja, Nigeria — The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) branch of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has escalated its internal crisis to the courts, with fifteen members suing the national union leadership over what they term an unconstitutional suspension and the imposition of a caretaker committee.
The aggrieved members, representing the concerned staff of the NMDPRA branch, filed the suit (NICN/ABJ/307/2025) at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Abuja. They are challenging the national leadership’s authority, specifically demanding a court declaration that under the PENGASSAN Constitution 2022, a branch’s affairs cannot be managed by a caretaker committee for longer than three months, during which period a branch election must be held.
National Leadership and CTC Members Named
The defendants in the legal action include the PENGASSAN national body itself, alongside its national leadership: President Festus Osifo and General Secretary Lumumba Okugbawa. Also named are the appointed members of the controversial caretaker committee, including Tony Izogba, Gbolahan Akinyo, Okechuwku Nwanko, Abba Safana, and Polycarp Ihejirika.
This move follows the national PENGASSAN leadership’s suspension of over forty members in the NMDPRA branch, marking a significant escalation in the dispute.
Wider Crisis Rocks Petroleum Union
The NMDPRA lawsuit is the latest development in a series of controversies between PENGASSAN’s national secretariat and several of its prominent branches. The union is currently battling similar leadership disputes with its branches in Shell, Chevron, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
In a related case, the National Industrial Court in Lagos had previously ordered all parties involved in a leadership tussle at the Chevron branch to maintain peace. This order came during the hearing of a suit filed by seven senior staff members challenging the union’s national leadership for dissolving the branch executive and installing a caretaker committee on June 27. The members had rejected the caretaker committee, labelling the national body’s decision as unconstitutional, undemocratic, and a clear breach of the union’s internal rules.