The Arewa Youths Alliance for Sustainable Development (AYASUD) has accused the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) of acting in the interest of oil cabals against the Dangote Refinery, warning that its continued picketing and intimidation of the facility is detrimental to national development.
The group, which has membership across the 19 northern states, described the refinery as a “fresh breath of hope” that has drawn global attention and should be protected rather than sabotaged.
It called on the Federal Government to urgently check what it termed the excesses of PENGASSAN and other oil unions whose actions, it said, threaten the country’s economic stability.
Speaking on behalf of the group, the North West Zonal Coordinator, Comrade Abdul-Kareem Tunbingiwa, said the unions’ action against the refinery were inimical to the daily survival of ordinary Nigerians and accused union leaders of working to preserve the interests of entrenched cabals.
“They need to leave Dangote alone. Dangote is doing what so many of them would never do even if they had the resources,” Tunbingiwa declared.
“Many of these union leaders once held licenses to build refineries but failed. They know they cannot survive in business if they have to withstand the pressure and sabotage they are notorious for.”
The youth body further challenged PENGASSAN to explain the benefits of its demands to ordinary Nigerians, recalling that the union was silent when government-owned refineries were allegedly turned into “Automated Teller Machines” through fruitless annual turnaround maintenance exercises that gulped billions of naira but yielded no results.
“Instead of aligning with the interests of Nigerians, PENGASSAN worked with those who looted the refineries under the guise of turnaround maintenance. Today, they want to frustrate the one man who has done what government and licensed operators could not achieve,” Tunbingiwa added.
AYASUD reiterated its call on the Federal Government and “all lovers of development” to act decisively to prevent what it called deliberate attempts to undermine Dangote’s private investment, warning that an attack on the refinery is an attack on the Nigerian people.
