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AS the communications giant, MTN, is alleged to be owing members of the Oil and Gas Supply Branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) N644 million debt, the union yesterday issued a directive that its members should stop supplying diesel to all MTN service stations.

The union alleged that its members were contracted by a company known as Private Network Nigeria (PNN) Limited to service MTN sites in the country, saying that while the contract lasted, not a dime was paid to the oil workers. .

The South-West Zonal Chairman of the union, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said that the union had some weeks ago issued a directive that members should stop supplying all the sites of MTN but because of the intervention of Mr. Femi Falana, the telecommunications firm's lawyer, we stopped the action.

He said: “Falana is a man that we respect so much. So, when he appealed that we go back to business, we did, believing that all will be settled soon. It is, however, unfortunate that after weeks nothing has been done to address the issue.

“Initially, we restricted the directive to Lagos, but now, we are going to extend it to every part of the country.

“The implication is that subscribers are going to suffer it, as they may not be able to make calls as usual.”

Korodo said that PNN gave Local Purchasing Order (LPO) to their members and for over a year, they have not been paid, adding that this has led to harassment and threats by banks where they borrowed money.

Korodo said that several times, they had called for the intervention of MTN management but they claimed to have paid the money to the PNN management.

He added that since they furnished MTN with details of the debt, as requested, with copies of bounced cheques, “the organisation has not taken any action to bailout our members”.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications, MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Funmi Omogbenigun, admitted that PNN is their contractor, saying “issues between our contractor and their sub-contractors are outside of our purview, and we cannot be held liable for the unresolved matters between them.

“We do not know PNN's subcontractors and we have no legal or other relationship with them. However, as a humane organisation, we have made efforts to mediate between them.

“We can only employ moral suasion to influence PNN to treat their sub-contractors with the same courtesy that MTN treats its own contractors. That is why we are surprised by the threats to disrupt our diesel supplies due to a dispute between PNN and its sub-contractors.”

According to her, clearly, “we cannot be held responsible for disputes between our contractor and parties unknown to us in law and in fact.”


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