The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) on Friday restrained the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) from picketing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Justice Peter Lifu, who gave the ruling in Abuja, also granted leave to the claimant to issue and serve its originating process.

“The defendants are hereby restrained either by themselves, or through their agents, privies, servants, members or anybody acting on their instruction or on their behalf.”

The order also barred the defendants from “disrupting, picketing, blocking, parading themselves or in any other way or manner disturbing the normal business operation of CBN, either at the headquarters or any of its zones or branches within the Federal Republic of Nigeria, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the union is protesting over the non-payment of the outstanding salaries and terminal benefits of its members who were disengaged by Seawolf Oil field Services Limited.

Seawolf Oil Field Services Limited, due to its non-performing loans with a bank, was acquired by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in 2014.

AMCON refused to pay the outstanding benefits of disengaged staff after acquiring the company, thereby generating the protest.

It was established on the 19th July 2010, when former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the AMCON Act into Law.

The corporation was created to be a key stabilising and re-vitalising tool established to revive the financial system by efficiently resolving the non-performing loan assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy.

As part of its overall supervisory functions through AMCON, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is empowered to act with AMCON to provide a myriad of functions intended to improve the liquidity of the toxic assets.

This is achieved by purchasing them using secondary market mechanisms, thus allowing the affected institutions to stabilise their balance sheets and avoid further losses.

The judge adjourned the case till Aug. 13, 2015, for hearing. (NAN)

•Photo shows CBN Headquarters.

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