Oil workers in the country have blamed their recent strike action, which caused a fuel scarcity crisis and almost crippled the economy, on the immediate past government's attempts to blackmail them.

The Federal Executive Council at the end of its valedictory session on Wednesday accused the oil workers unions of using the strike to agitate for improved welfare, including demands for salaries and allowances increase for their members, PREMIUM TIMES says.

However, PENGASSAN spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojugbana, expressed disgust and anger over such insinuations, which he said was “premised on falsehood aimed at creating public disaffection against the unions and possibly incites hateful dispositions towards the (petroleum) sector.”

The general reason the union gave for embarking on the strike was a disagreement with FG on the procedure of transfering Operating Mining Lease (OML’s) 30, 34, 40 and 42 by the government.

The protest, he said, was targeted at frustrating “the immoral and improper approval” for the transfer of non-oil assets in OML 34 to ND Western Ltd, which should have been the responsibility of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, an NNPC subsidiary, as the operator.

He said the only offence of the oil workers was their insistence on due process in the transfer and sale of national assets in the oil & gas sector, rather than handing them over to “incompetent private individuals, government lackeys and contractors without recourse to laid down regulations and international best practices.”