Dangote Reassigns Sacked Refinery Engineers to Sugar, Cement Plants

In a new twist to the controversy surrounding the recent dismissal of some engineers at the Dangote Refinery, the Dangote Group has reportedly reassigned the affected personnel to its sugar and cement subsidiaries.

Sources within the company confirmed on Monday that the reassignment followed internal consultations and restructuring efforts aimed at optimizing manpower across the conglomerate’s operations.

The affected engineers, who were initially employed under the refinery’s technical and operations departments, are said to have received new deployment letters directing them to resume duties at the Dangote Sugar Refinery and Dangote Cement Plc plants across the country.

A senior company official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the decision was part of a “strategic internal redeployment” rather than outright termination.

“No one has been abandoned. Some engineers were reassigned to other divisions within the group where their skills can still be useful. The refinery is restructuring ahead of full-scale commercial operations,” the source stated.

It was further gathered that with their transfer to non-oil subsidiaries, the affected engineers automatically ceased to be members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), as they are no longer working in the oil and gas sector.

The development comes amid growing concerns over the refinery’s staffing policies and the reported disengagement of several expatriate and local technical workers since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, labour sources within PENGASSAN described the move as “a clever corporate maneuver” to sidestep ongoing labour disputes, suggesting that the company may be seeking to diffuse tension within the refinery unit.

An industry analyst likened the move to a proverbial saying: “If a child decides to die in the dry season when the ground is hard, the parents should bury the corpse by the river where digging is easier” implying that the Dangote Group chose a pragmatic path to resolve a potentially difficult situation.

Efforts to obtain an official comment from the Dangote Group’s corporate communications department were unsuccessful as of press time.