The Partner for National Economic Progress (PANEP), a coalition of civil society organisations in Nigeria with the mandate of entrenching economic prosperity and the welfare of Nigerians has staged a mega rally in Abuja, demanding an end to sabotage and other clandestine attacks against individual investments in the Nigerian petroleum sector.
Addressing a mammoth crowd at the Unity Fountain, Abuja, shortly after the rally on the theme ‘National Unity Against Sabotage: Reclaiming Our Petroleum Sector for the People’, Comrade Olayinka Dada Spike who spoke on behalf of the Coalition, underscored the importance of the petroleum sector to Nigeria’s economy but wondered why a few elements are bent on hijacking it for personal gains.
“The Nigerian petroleum sector remains a critical component of the
national economy. However, it continues to face persistent threats from
internal and external saboteurs whose activities hitherto included product
diversion, smuggling, pipeline vandalism, hoarding, round tripping,
dumping, collusion to inflate prices and worst of all, organised economic
subversion targeted at frustrating efforts at making Nigeria an oil refining
country.
“With the removal of the criminal regime of subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the successful take-off of the world class Dangote Refineries and Petrochemical Limited, the saboteurs mutated into launching defamation campaigns against Dangote Refineries, conniving with rogue unions and agencies to discredit Dangote Refinery and continue the importation of very low quality petroleum products.
“These actions directly sabotage government reforms, distort market
stability, discourage real investments in the downstream petroleum sector,
cause scarcity, and bring untold hardship to the Nigerian people.
“Despite several policy interventions and regulatory reforms, including the
Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and subsidy reforms, the sabotage of
downstream operations continues to undermine progress, encourage fuel
corruption, and erode public trust in the system. This situation calls for
urgent and coordinated civic action to support the Federal Government
efforts in sanitizing the sector and holding saboteurs accountable.
“This is exactly what PANEP has risen to, especially in furtherance of the liberation spirit of the Nigerian 65th Independence Day Celebrations. Our mission is rooted in an unshakeable collective resolve that sabotage must stop, now and forever”, the text read in part.
The coalition lamented the sad situation following the collapse of Nigeria’s refineries, describing the importation regime which lasted for decades as one of the most criminal and economically debilitating ventures in the history of Nigeria.
“Alhaji Aliko Dangote has come to save us an oil cartel who fed fat on our collective failure to refine petroleum products locally. This caliber of persons used blackmail and unions to frustrate government efforts in order to maintain the subsidy regime.
“With Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, every crude arm-twisting strategy has been employed by this unpatriotic
and wicked cartel to frustrate the refinery. The shenanigans of PENGASSAN, NUPENG, DAPPMAN, PETROAN and may be the NLC must be seen as criminal sabotage and not unionism.
“It was PENGASSA and NUPENG that sabotaged the decision of Obasanjo’s Government to sell the moribund public refineries just so they can continue diverting billions of dollars of Nigerians money in the name of rehabilitation, recently deceiving Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery is working. These are saboteurs and no sugarcoating will change that”, the text added.
The Coalition, in the spirit of Nigeria’s independence and liberation,
“urged Nigeria to break free from this mindless cabal and their agents in
government agencies and those masquerading as labour unions”, adding that the federal government should “intensify efforts to stop further acts of sabotage as Nigerians are happy with the drop in prices of petroleum products.”
