A northern pressure group, the Arewa Social Contract Initiative has accused the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) of waging what it described as an “economic war” against Nigerians through its ongoing actions targeting the Dangote Refinery.
The group made the allegation on Wednesday while addressing a press conference at the conference hall of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kano.
National Chairman of the group, Sani Adamu, said following an emergency meeting of its national executive members, the group is worried over what it called “coordinated attempts to sabotage Nigeria’s economic independence.”
According to him, PENGASSAN’s directive to halt crude oil and gas supplies to the Dangote Refinery and its threat of a nationwide strike amount to “economic terrorism” that could paralyze essential sectors including health, transportation, and commerce.
“The Dangote Refinery is not just Africa’s largest, but the world’s biggest single-train refinery, with the capacity to process 650,000 barrels per day.
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“It was designed to end Nigeria’s humiliating dependence on imported fuel, stabilize the naira, and close the dark chapter of fuel subsidy fraud. To attack it is to attack the future of every Nigerian,” he stated.
The group also dismissed PENGASSAN’s claims of mass sackings and the replacement of Nigerian workers with foreigners as “false propaganda,” insisting that the refinery currently employs over 3,000 Nigerians and contributes significantly to tax revenues.
They also accused the union of having a long record of blocking reforms, citing its 2007 opposition to the sale of moribund refineries; warning that, targeting Aliko Dangote, “a Northern industrialist who invested massively in the South,” risked politicizing a national asset along ethnic and regional lines.
The group leader further urged the federal government to declare the refinery a critical national infrastructure, guarantee uninterrupted crude oil supply, and investigate what it termed “acts of economic sabotage.” It also called on law enforcement agencies to secure the refinery and its workers.
To PENGASSAN, the group demanded an immediate end to actions “crippling the refinery” and urged the union to return to dialogue rather than “holding the nation hostage.”
“The Dangote Refinery is our beacon of economic independence,” the group declared. “We will not allow a few individuals to destroy the hope of over 200 million Nigerians,” they maintained.
