Hon. Peter Aniekwe, representing Anambra East and West federal constituency in the House of Representatives, has issued a stern warning to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to cease spreading false claims against the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Company.

In a statement issued in Abuja over the weekend, Aniekwe criticised the allegations by NMDPRA that the Dangote Refinery produces inferior products compared to imported ones. He specifically faulted the NMDPRA’s CEO, Farouk Ahmed, for making such claims, asserting that the refinery is a national asset that should be protected and promoted rather than disparaged by institutions like NNPCL and NMDPRA.

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Aniekwe expressed his dismay at Ahmed’s statement that the quality of diesel produced by Dangote was 665 ppm, which he deemed inferior.

“It is quite disheartening that Ahmed, the CEO of NMDPRA, who is paid by taxpayers’ money, is dishing out lies about an indigenous refinery owned by Aliko Dangote, which holds potential for addressing the nation’s challenges in the petroleum sector,” Aniekwe said.

The lawmaker recalled Ahmed’s comments: “The Dangote refinery is still in the pre-commissioning stage. It has not been licenced yet. We haven’t licenced them yet. They are still in pre-commissioning stage. I think they’re about 45 per cent completed, in completion rather. So we cannot rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation, because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop all importation of petroleum products, especially AGO (diesel) and jet fuel, and direct all marketers to the refinery. In terms of quality, currently…Dangote refinery as well as some major refineries like Waltersmith refinery, produce between 650ppm to 1,200 ppm. So, in terms of quality, their quality is much inferior to the imported quality.”

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Aniekwe, however, highlighted a test of Dangote’s products, supervised by Members of the House of Representatives, which revealed that Dangote’s diesel had a sulphur content of 87.6 ppm, while two samples of imported diesel showed sulphur levels exceeding 1800 ppm and 2000 ppm respectively, thus rendering NMDPRA’s allegations baseless.

The lawmaker also criticised NNPCL for its failure to invest in and support the Dangote Refinery. He noted that while the Federal Government of Nigeria initially subscribed to 20 percent shares in the refinery, it was only able to redeem 7.2 percent through NNPCL.

Aniekwe declared that any sabotage attempts by both NNPCL and NMDPRA would fail, emphasising the importance of the Dangote Refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, as Africa’s largest refinery and the world’s 7th largest by capacity, intended to alleviate Nigeria’s petroleum product needs.