Students under the auspices of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) have asked President Bola Tinubu to protect the Dangote Refinery from saboteurs.
The students, who marched through the streets of Benin City in protest, said the Dangote Refinery was not a business venture but a symbol that the country was capable of producing what others said it could only import.
They said actors within PENGASSAN, NUPENG, and DAPMAN aligned with fuel importation cartels to protect a fuel importers built on Nigeria’s weakness.
National President of NAPS, Comrade Eshiofune Paul Oghayan, who spoke on behalf of the protesters, called on the Federal Government to defend and protect the Dangote Refinery as a national strategic asset.
Comrade Oghayan said any sabotage against the refinery must be treated as economic terrorism.
He urged the federal government to ensure 100% crude oil supply allocated to the Dangote Refinery.
According to him: “If we feed the refinery fully, it will crash fuel prices, strengthen the Naira, and stop the bleeding of foreign exchange.
“We call on the Federal Government to halt the importation of fuel entirely.
While we appreciate the 15% slash in fuel importation approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we insist that half-measures cannot deliver full recovery.
Nigeria must refine what we use.
“We demand national priority for locally refined fuel in government procurement, transport, aviation, power and military sectors.
“We urge Mr. President to dismantle the importation cartel and support genuine national industrialization.”
