Aggrieved Staff of ExxonMobil in Akwa Ibom state on Friday took to the streets over the sack of 860 spy police in the company without entitlements.
The protest which started at about 8 am had the Mobil Housing Estate at Marina road, Eket Local council blocked by protesters carrying placards with various inscriptions such as “ExxonMobil sacked 860 Nigerian workers after over 22 years of slave labour,” “ExxonMobil respect the rule of law”, “Supreme Court of Nigeria is higher than ExxonMobil.”
Other inscriptions include, “ExxonMobil comply with Supreme Court Judgement”, “Calculated disobedience of supreme court judgement on its employees is an insult to the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, “ExxonMobil masters of slave labour, ” among others.
Mr Okon Johnson, chairman, Security Workforce of ExxonMobil expressed his displeasure over the action of the company and expressed disappointment over the injustice done to the affected workers who had entrusted their lives and property to the company.
Johnson, however, urged the company to comply with the Supreme Court judgement of April 20, 2018, which ruled that the company should reabsorb the 860 spy policemen and reward long-serving personnel.
“The Management of ExxonMobil calls us today for a meeting at Eden Hotel and they addressed us that emails will be sent us. In the meeting, the multinational company told us that the company has acknowledged us as staff and working to implement the supreme court judgement.
“After the meeting, surprisingly as we were going back to our offices, we noticed that ExxonMobil has already withdrawn our access badge and we can not have access to the premises of the company,” he said.
He said that they would not end the peaceful protest until the company reabsorbs the 860 staff and implement their entitlements.
“Our demand is for the company to fully comply with the judgement of the Apex court. The Apex court should be respected and if the company is doing this, that means it is disrespectful to the nation, the Supreme Court and the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Johnson said.
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