Members of the National Association of Oduduwa Students, the Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement are currently staging a peaceful protest in solidarity with the Dangote Refinery, amid its ongoing faceoff with oil unions, PENGASSAN, NUPENG, and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria.
The protesters, who converged on Tuesday at Iwo Road Roundabout, end of Ibadan/Lagos expressway, Ibadan in Oyo State, were chanting different songs to show their solidarity.
They are marching through major routes, waving placards with inscriptions such as, “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” “#StopsabotagingfuelinNigwria“#EndPENGASSAN,” #EndDAPPMAN,” “#DangoteRefineryIsANationalAsset,” “#StopSabotage, among others.”
Wearing matching shirts emblazoned with, “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” the students said the protest is aimed at drawing government attention to what they describe 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.
The NAOS President, Olalere Adetunji, called on President Bola Tinubu and relevant government agencies to intervene urgently.
“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.”
Security operatives, including the police and Federal Road Safety Corps, are on ground to maintain order as the protest continues.
