By Taiye Odewale
Abuja
Ahead of the passage and implementation of the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB), popularly known as Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the Senate’s Joint Committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) as well as Gas yesterday set condition for sack of oil workers after implementation.
The joint committee in line with recommendation made by its Technical Consultant on fate of oil workers presently engaged by the federal government, concurred to five years additional service for the workers after deregulation of the sector before disengagement of any one of them.
The Technical Consultant had in its power point presentation made by its leader, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, to members of the joint committee on conditions to guide the implementation of the planned oil sector reform among others said “No present staff should be disengaged until after 5 years of implementation,” to which they concurred.
However, for proper digestion, consideration and approval of the Technical Consultant report on the impending deregulation of the oil sector, the committee has planned a retreat with the consultant in Uyo, the capital of Akwa-Ibom state, next week.
For proper grasp of the technical consultant report, many of the members of the joint committee requested it to put it in a separate ipad for them but the committee chairman, Senator Tayo Alasoadura, told the consultant to copy the report into flash drive for each of the members latest by today.
The planned retreat will begin on Wednesday, next week, and end on Saturday, February 18, 2017.
It would be recalled that the PIGB scaled second reading at both the Senate and the House of Representatives last year with strong resolve by leadership of both chambers to see to final passage of it this time around , having failed in the 6th and 7th National Assemblies.
