Some members of the National Association of Oduduwa Students, the Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest in Ibadan, Oyo State, in solidarity with the Dangote Refinery amid its ongoing dispute with oil unions — PENGASSAN, NUPENG, and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN).
The demonstrators, who gathered at the Iwo Road Roundabout along the Ibadan–Lagos Expressway, chanted solidarity songs while marching through major streets of the city.
Clad in matching shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” the protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “#StopSabotagingFuelInNigeria,” “#EndPENGASSAN,” “#EndDAPPMAN,” and “#DangoteRefineryIsANationalAsset.”
The students said their action was to draw government attention to what they described as “a coordinated attempt by vested interests” to frustrate the operations of the refinery — Nigeria’s biggest industrial investment and Africa’s largest single-train refinery.
President of the National Association of Oduduwa Students (NAOS), Olalere Adetunji, appealed to President Bola Tinubu and relevant government agencies to intervene swiftly to prevent any disruption to the refinery’s operations.
“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.
Security operatives, including personnel of the Nigeria Police Force and the Federal Road Safety Corps, were on ground to maintain order as the protest progressed.
Details later…
