Nigerians may be ushered into the year 2014 with a crippling fuel crisis as the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has vowed that there is no going back on its threatened strike if the Federal Government goes ahead with the proposed privatisation of the country’s refineries.

“The union has not suspended the proposed strike coming up in the new year as prayer sessions are still ongoing in the NNPC and its subsidiaries over government’s plan to privatise the refineries by our members,” NUPENG’s President, Achese Igwe, said yesterday in a statement in Lagos.

“NUPENG,” according to Igwe, “is aware of the meeting scheduled by the Honourable Minister of Labour for NUPENG SSAN on January 7, 2014 but believes and hopes that the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources will be in attendance, as the issues involved are critical to her ministry.

“The union position is that the government’s plan to privatise the refineries is not in the best interest of the nation. NUPENG will therefore resist it, if all efforts at the talks fail,”

•Photo shows Petroleum Minister, Diezani Allison-Madueke.