Students Stage Protest Over Dangote, Oil Unions Faceoff

Some members of the National Association of Oduduwa Students, the Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement protested on Tuesday against the faceoff between Dangote Refinery and oil and gas sector unions.

The protesters said the peaceful protest was in solidarity with the Dangote Refinery, amid its ongoing faceoff with oil unions, especially the Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

The protesters converged at Iwo Road Roundabout, the end of the Ibadan/Lagos expressway in Ibadan, Oyo State, and chanted different songs to show solidarity.

They marched through major routes, waving placards with inscriptions such as, “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,”

Wearing matching shirts emblazoned with, “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” the students said the protest was 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 most significant 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, were on the ground to maintain order during the protest.