Thousands of Nigerians under the platform of Partners for National Economic Progress (PANEP) on Monday held a massive protest in Kaduna, urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take decisive measures against those allegedly sabotaging domestic petroleum refining.
The demonstrators, who assembled at Murtala Mohammed Square before marching across major roads, accused a dominant oil cartel of crippling Nigeria’s growth by obstructing the smooth operation of the Dangote Refinery and other homegrown projects.
Singing solidarity tunes and holding placards with inscriptions such as “Support Local Refining,” “Crush Economic Saboteurs,” and “Protect Dangote Refinery,” they declared that their campaign was aimed at ending years of “economic manipulation” by vested interests feeding off fuel importation.
PANEP National Coordinator, Comrade Igwe Ude-Umanta, explained that the protest, tagged “National Unity Against Sabotage,” formed part of a nationwide mobilisation to safeguard Nigeria’s refining sector.
“This is not about Dangote alone; it’s about Nigeria’s economic survival,” he said. “The President must crush those sabotaging our march toward self-reliance.”
Ude-Umanta alleged that oil unions and fuel importers were working with foreign actors to undermine domestic refining.
He further described the recent conduct of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) as “economic terrorism,” claiming that the union’s disruption of refinery operations was tied to a broader scheme.
“What PENGASSAN did was not unionism—it was sabotage,” he said. “The Federal Government should act firmly to protect national interests.”
End of economic enslavement
PANEP co-leader, Comrade Dahiru Umar Maishanu, described the protest as a patriotic effort to end “economic enslavement” by petroleum importers.
“They are scared because local refining will expose their fraud and end their control over pricing,” he said.
He alleged that the cartel had prevented the distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Jet A1 fuel from local producers in order to sustain inflated prices.
The movement also hailed the Dangote Refinery for cutting the prices of PMS and AGO, calling on President Tinubu to ensure local refineries are supplied crude oil at the same rate offered to foreign buyers.
The peaceful demonstration concluded with chants of “Long live Dangote Refinery! Long live Nigeria!” as protesters pledged to keep mobilising until, in their words, “every saboteur of Nigeria’s economic progress is crushed.”
