Hundreds of sacked workers of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPN Unltd) on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest to demand the payment of their 12 years unpaid severance benefits.

The workers also Insisted that the multinational oil firm must settle their entitlements before they leave they shores of Nigeria as planned.

The protesters under the aegis of Ex-Mobil Janitorial Service Staff and Unified Catering Workforce defied the early morning rain to converge at the gate of the Mobil Housing Estate, Eket, Akwa Ibom state, to press for their entitlements.

While singing various Christian worship songs, they displayed placards with various inscriptions. Messages on the placards such as ?Human Rights Community to Mobil: Respect Labour Law and Nigerian Constitution, ?Agreement is Agreement: MPN stick to the collective bargaining Agreement? and ?You can?t leave Nigeria until you settle your liabilities?.

Other placards read, ?Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited Pay Us our Entitlements before you divest to Seplat Energy?, ?Stop the Abuse of Human/Labour Rights in Nigeria Now? among others.

Leader of the protesters, Moses Mbong disclosed that MPN Unlimited sacked 2,390 janitorial and catering services contract workers between 2007 and 2017 without entitlements paid to them.

Mbong said that the action of the oil firm negates the labour agreement signed by representatives of service contractors, NUPENG and Mobil.

He said that they have made several efforts up to the National Assembly to get their severance benefits paid but to no avail.

?We have carried out series of protest over this same issue. The matter was brought before the House of Representatives but somehow it wasn?t settled.

?Mobil keeps telling us that we are third parties meaning that the contractors that engaged us ought to have settled us but it is not true. We worked for Mobil and deserve to be paid off.

?As we speak, 125 of us have died while waiting for their entitlements. Several others are in critical health conditions. We can?t allow the impunity slavish treatment meted to Nigerians by Mobil to continue.

?We can?t guarantee the safety of Mobil facilities and workers if this ill-treatment continues. We have been patient enough?, Mbong said.

Efforts to get the reaction of Mobil Producing Nigeria were abortive as the General corporate affairs manager Mr. Ogechukwu Udiaga did not pick calls from our Correspondent. (Daily Sun)

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