***Alleges ₦30bn loss, accuses oil cabals and union leaders of economic sabotage
The Yoruba Council Worldwide (Igbimo Apapo Yoruba L’Agbaye) has raised alarm over an alleged plot by oil cabals and union leaders to sabotage the $20 billion Dangote Refinery, calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately suspend the issuance of petroleum import licences.
In a petition dated November 3, 2025, and signed by its President, Aare Oladotun Hassan, Esq, the Council accused certain entrenched interests within the oil sector of deliberately undermining Nigeria’s quest for energy self-sufficiency.
Backed by the Nigeria Coalition Group (NCG), Nigeria Youth Coalition (NYC), Coalition of Southern Groups (CSG), and National Youth Stakeholders Forum (NYSF), the Yoruba Council warned that continuing to issue import licences through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) violates Section 317 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and poses a “grave threat to national energy security.”
Hassan described the Dangote Refinery—Africa’s largest, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, scalable to 1.4 million BPD—as a strategic national asset capable of ending decades of dependence on imported petroleum products.
“Recent attempts to frustrate and blackmail Dangote are part of a deliberate plot to derail Nigeria’s industrial revival,” Hassan warned, estimating losses from the October 1 disruptions at over ₦30 billion.
The petition alleged that leaders of major oil unions, including Festus Osifo (President, PENGASSAN and NUPENG), Lumumba Okugbawa (PENGASSAN Secretary), and Chinedu Ukadike (PRO, IPMAN), were part of a coordinated effort to sustain fuel importation by undermining the Dangote project.
“These actors have hidden behind the rhetoric of competition to protect vested interests in fuel importation and opaque subsidy regimes,” the petition stated.
The Council called on President Tinubu to order a comprehensive forensic probe into the finances and operations of those implicated, involving the National Security Adviser, DSS, NIA, NFIU, the Police, and the Attorney-General’s Office.
It also proposed a Crude Exploration Nationalization Policy Synergy Scheme to guarantee crude supply to domestic refineries and promote indigenous investment, alongside higher tariffs—or an outright ban—on imported petroleum products.
The group further accused certain union leaders of blocking crude and gas supplies to the Dangote Refinery—acts it described as “economic terrorism” aimed at frustrating efforts to stabilize fuel prices and end scarcity.
Hassan commended Alhaji Aliko Dangote for his recent ₦2 trillion investment to procure 10,000 new tanker trucks for free nationwide product distribution, describing it as “a patriotic gesture to advance national progress.”
He revealed that the refinery had survived 22 acts of sabotage allegedly linked to corrupt officials and external collaborators.
To rally public support, the Council announced a “Grand Solidarity and Thank You Rally” in honour of Dangote and President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, scheduled for Wednesday, November 12, 2025, at JJT Park, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. Participants are encouraged to wear white and jeans as symbols of peace and unity.
“Our message is clear,” Hassan concluded. “Protecting Dangote Refinery is protecting Nigeria’s future. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
