At least 700 truck drivers at BUA Group’s Obu-Okpella plant in Edo State have been laid off following a protest over benefits they claimed were unfairly withheld. The dismissals come after the drivers raised concerns over their exclusion from a N30 billion staff payout announced by the company in December 2025.
The truck drivers staged a peaceful demonstration on December 24, 2025, demanding their share of the disbursed funds, which they alleged had only been allocated to management and selected employees. Within days, affected staff began receiving dismissal letters, leaving many without severance pay.
The dismissed workers highlighted long-standing grievances, including denied house allowances and health insurance. Silas Simon*, a driver at the plant, said, “We are the front-runners of the business, yet we were excluded from benefits meant for long-serving employees. Our peaceful protest was met with dismissal letters for about 700 of us.”
Another driver, John Obi*, who had spent ten years at the company, confirmed the layoffs. “The money was shared across branches, but we, the truck drivers, got nothing. Management claimed there were too many drivers to be included,” he said, noting that many of his colleagues opted not to collect their dismissal letters to avoid formally signing off their employment.
The drivers further revealed that, despite being direct employees, they had been consistently denied benefits such as health insurance and house allowances, receiving only basic salaries ranging from N65,000 to N120,000. Friday James*, a colleague who joined BUA in 2019, added that the transportation department’s grievances had persisted since 2021, with management failing to address their concerns even during company anniversaries and staff payouts.
Attempts to obtain comment from BUA’s Edo plant management were redirected to the head office, which had not responded to inquiries at press time.
The dismissals underscore persistent labour tensions within Nigeria’s corporate sector, raising questions about equitable staff treatment, especially for employees in operational and frontline roles.
