The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria (COCSON) and the Nigerian Interfaith Forum (NIF) have thrown their weight behind the Dangote Refinery, rejecting what they described as a plot by the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) to reintroduce fuel subsidy through the back door.

The groups accused DAPPMAN of pushing for a ₦1.505 trillion “backdoor subsidy” that would plunge millions of Nigerians deeper into economic hardship.
Speaking at a joint press conference in Abuja on Friday, COCSON President Comrade Ibrahim Suleiman and NIF Chairman Rev. Dr. Matthew Ayodele said the demand, disguised as operational costs of ₦75 per litre, amounted to “economic sabotage” and “treachery against the Nigerian people.”

“Mothers are skipping meals, fathers are trekking long distances to save transport fares, and young people are losing hope as inflation bites,” Suleiman said. “At such a critical time, to ask Nigerians to underwrite inefficiency with ₦1.5 trillion yearly is wickedness. This is not subsidy — it is extortion.”
They accused DAPPMAN of deliberately undermining the operations of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which they described as a “national asset and beacon of industrial progress.”

According to them, while Dangote Refinery exported over 3.2 million metric tonnes of refined products in just three months, DAPPMAN imported 3.6 million metric tonnes, allegedly promoting dumping and sabotaging local refining.
They recalled that at the commissioning of the refinery, Dangote was left with over 500 million litres of unsold stock as marketers allegedly refused to patronise him. The groups argued that Dangote’s eventual decision to invest in over 4,000 trucks to distribute his own products was a direct response to “cartel sabotage,” not an attempt to monopolise the market.

“Those who abandoned and strangled his refinery are now crying monopoly,” said Imam Musa Abdullahi, NIF National Secretary. “What they call monopoly is simply resilience and strategy.”
The coalition also warned that entertaining DAPPMAN’s demands would undermine President Bola Tinubu’s subsidy removal policy and damage Nigeria’s credibility before international investors.
“Granting such concessions would roll back hard-won reforms and drag us back into subsidy fraud,” said Grace Okonkwo, COCSON’s National Secretary.

The groups unveiled a series of measures to resist DAPPMAN’s push, including filing a suit at the Federal High Court for economic sabotage and conspiracy, countrywide protests calling for DAPPMAN’s dissolution, lobbying the Federal Government and National Assembly to prioritize local refining in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and strengthen anti-cartel laws, and publishing a “watchlist” of companies and individuals accused of sabotaging Nigeria’s refining sector.

The coalition stressed that the issue transcends Dangote Refinery alone, framing it as a national struggle between “nation-builders and nation-wreckers.”

“DAPPMAN’s demand for ₦1.505 trillion is a declaration of war on the Nigerian people,” Suleiman declared. “Our response is clear: we will resist, we will mobilise, we will litigate, and we will not rest until this cartel is defeated.”

The groups called on the Federal Government to remain firm, Nigerians to unite, and Dangote Refinery to “stand strong” in what they described as the country’s refining revolution.