Members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Pengassan threatened to pull out its entire workforce from oil and gas installations nationwide in protest of the increasing oil theft and vandalism.

Members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Pengassan have threatened to pull out its entire workforce from oil and gas installations nationwide in protest of the increasing oil theft and vandalism.

The President of Pengassan, Festus Osifo, made their intentions known at a press conference held in Abuja, lamenting that crude oil theft had crumbled the nation’s economy, threatening that oil workers are ready to withdraw their services if the government pays lip service to their demands of fighting the menace with sincerity and sense of purpose.

Osifo, said in other climes governments deploy high technology to fight such heinous crimes of sabotage, but despite all the hues and cries and the damage oil theft and pipeline vandalism are doing to the nation’s economy, the Federal Government appears to be helpless.

He lamented that due to oil theft, Nigeria could no longer meet up with the OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels of crude oil, even as the country is struggling to produce a million barrels because the products are stolen, while companies are shutting down production.