Pro-Dangote protest rocks Ibadan as students back Refinery

Several Yoruba student bodies, including the National Association of Oduduwa Students (NAOS), the Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement, on Tuesday, held a peaceful protest in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, to express their solidarity with the Dangote Refinery amid its ongoing dispute with major oil workers’ and marketers’ unions.

The demonstration came in response to the refinery’s clash with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) over issues reportedly related to pricing, distribution, and operational policies.

The protesters, who converged at the Iwo Road Roundabout, the end of the Ibadan-Lagos Expressway, marched through major streets chanting solidarity songs and waving placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” “#StopSabotagingFuelInNigeria,” “#EndPENGASSAN,” “#EndDAPPMAN,” “#DangoteRefineryIsANationalAsset,” and “#StopSabotage.”

Dressed in matching shirts emblazoned with the message “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” the protesters said their demonstration was intended to draw the attention of the Federal Government to what they described as a “coordinated attempt by vested interests” to frustrate the operations of the private refinery, described as Nigeria’s biggest industrial investment and Africa’s largest single-train refinery.

Addressing journalists during the rally, the President of NAOS, Olalere Adetunji, urged President Bola Tinubu and relevant government agencies to act swiftly to protect the refinery from disruption.

“We want to use this period to appeal to the Federal Government to protect the refinery and ensure that labour and marketers’ actions do not derail Nigeria’s move toward fuel self-sufficiency,” Adetunji said.