Make public report on Dangote refinery, Arewa youths tell NASS

A coalition of Northern stakeholders under the auspices of Arewa Youths Assembly has asked the National Assembly (NASS) to make public its laboratory report on the quality of products produced by Dangote Refinery.

The organisation noted that the call became necessary due to allegations from some quarters over the quality of the products being churned out by the $19 billion, 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery owned by Aliko Dangote.

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The leadership of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had claimed that products from the facility, namely diesel and jet fuel, were of lower quality than those imported by Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, also recently led a delegation of lawmakers on a familiarisation visit to the facility in Lagos.

Last week, the two chambers of the National Assembly summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), NNPCL, Dangote Group and Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, among others, for questioning over alleged economic sabotage in the country’s petroleum industry.

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Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, the Speaker, Arewa Youth Assembly, Mohammed Danlami, urged the Chairman of Dangote Group to play by the rules and regulations of the country’s petroleum sector as dictated by relevant regulatory agencies.

The group said: “It is with deep surprise that, as a businessman, he has forgotten that one cannot escape competition in business.

“There are allegations that those at the Dangote refinery want NMDPRA not to licence anyone else to bring in products but that the government agency refused. No one should try to incite Nigerians against NMDPRA, saying they are giving licences to marketers who bring in substandard products into the country.

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“We are calling on the National Assembly to make public the laboratory results from his own refinery because information we are getting from different quarters shows the products are substandard.
“We want to make it clear to the public that the Nigerian government is only after excellence.”