Several members of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) were on Tuesday arrested and remanded at the Kirikiri Medium Security Correctional Centre, Lagos, following an order of committal issued by the Lagos State High Court over their alleged disobedience of a subsisting court judgment on the leadership and autonomy of union units.
The arrests followed the issuance and execution of Form 53, Warrant of Committal for Contempt, granted by Justice Lateefa Okunnu, after the court found that the contemnors willfully breached its earlier orders.
The warrant, arising from Suit No: LD/568/200, was executed by court sheriffs, who took the affected NUPENG officials into custody and conveyed them to Kirikiri Prison.
The case was instituted by Amusat Taofeek, Olusola Fagbohun, Isiaka Tiamiyu, Dauda Salami, Henry Hammorid, and Fatai Ore, against the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), and key national officers of the union.
Those listed as defendants include Igwe Aghese (NUPENG National President), Elifah Okougbo (National Secretary), and Timothy Ogbu (National Chairman of PTD), among others.
The contemnors named in the committal proceedings include Comrade Williams Akporeha (National President of NUPENG), Comrade Afolabi Olawale (General Secretary), Comrade Salimon Akani Oladiti (Trustee), Comrade Tayo Aboyeji (Chairman, Lagos Zonal Council), Comrade Saheed G. Adigun (Zonal Chairman, PTD), Comrade Akeem Ogunmola (PTD Treasurer), Comrade Adekunle Akinlaja (PTD Secretary), and other unit chairmen within the union.
Justice Okunnu had, in a judgment delivered earlier, affirmed the constitutional right of the claimants under Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution to freely associate and operate as an autonomous and specialised unit within NUPENG.
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The court declared that the claimants, who had existed for over 12 years as a specialised unit, could not be forcibly merged with the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) without their consent.
The judgment further granted multiple orders of perpetual injunction, restraining NUPENG and its officers from harassing, intimidating, or disrupting the activities of the claimants at the NIPCO Depot, Apapa, and other depots nationwide.
Justice Okunnu also issued mandatory orders compelling NUPENG to continue to recognise the claimants as an autonomous body, allow them to operate freely at petroleum depots across the country, and restore access previously blocked by union officials.
However, the court found that despite being duly served with the judgment, the contemnors deliberately disobeyed the orders, prompting the issuance of the committal warrant dated October 20, 2025.
The warrant directed court officers to arrest the contemnors and safely convey them to the appropriate correctional facility, pending compliance with the court’s orders.
Drama reportedly unfolded during the enforcement of the committal order after court sheriffs arrested the contemnors and handed them over to officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service.
According to sources familiar with the execution of the warrant, the court sheriff who effected the arrest alleged that the officers of the Nigerian Correctional Centre failed to strictly comply with the required standard procedures governing the admission and remand of contemnors.
The sheriff was said to have raised concerns over what he described as a compromise of established correctional protocols during the handover process, a development that reportedly caused tension at the facility and delayed the full execution of the court’s directive.
Although details of the alleged procedural lapses were not officially disclosed, the incident has further intensified scrutiny around the enforcement of the committal order, coming amid heightened interest in the leadership crisis rocking the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
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