From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

Thousands of Nigerians, on Thursday, staged a mass rally in Abuja to demand an end to sabotage and other clandestine attacks against individual investments in the Nigerian petroleum sector.

Spearheaded by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations with a mandate of entrenching economic prosperity, under the auspices of National Economic Progress (PANEP), the protesters bearing placards with various inscriptions, marched from Unity Fountain to the National Assembly.

Addressing the mammoth crowd at the Unity Fountain on behalf of the Coalition, shortly after the rally, Comrade Olayinka Dada Spike, underscored the importance of the petroleum sector to Nigeria’s economy, wondering why a few elements are bent on hijacking it for personal gains.

Speaking on the theme, ‘National Unity Against Sabotage: Reclaiming our Petroleum Sector for the People’, he said: “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 have 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 Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, the saboteurs mutated into launching defamation campaigns against Dangote Refinery, 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’s efforts in sanitising 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. They warned.

The coalition further 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.

“Aliko Dangote has come to save us from an oil cartel which fed fat on our collective failure to refine petroleum products locally. This calibre 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 maybe the NLC must be seen as criminal sabotage and not unionism.

“It was PENGASSAN 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 noted that, in the spirit of Nigeria’s independence and liberation, it urged Nigerians to break free from this mindless cabal and their agents in government agencies and those masquerading as labour unions.

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