We won’t accept selling of Dangote refinery to NNPC – Arewa Think Tank

The Arewa Think Tank (ATT) has expressed opposition to plans that will see the selling of the 650,000bpd capacity Dangote Refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

Recall that the Chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, offered to sell the refinery to NNPCL following allegations that the refinery was not duly registered and that its products were not of good quality.

But in a communique, ATT said the statement was made out of frustration.

In the communique, which was signed by Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu and Rev Nicholas Daniel Jatau, convener of ATT and co-convener, respectively, they expressed disgust on the alleged plans by NNPCL to sabotage the formal take off of the Dangote Refinery.

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The communique reads in part: “We note that the alleged campaign of calumny by NNPCL against the quality of products of Dangote Refinery amounts to frustrating President Bola Tinubu’s move to revive the nation’s economy. However, we are not convinced by some media reports that Aliko Dangote offered to sell his refinery to NNPCL, and we see such reports as an act of frustration forced on him by NNPCL.”

They described NNPCL as Nigeria’s enemy of progress in the oil sector, stating that there were some people in NNPCL who did not want the subsidy scam to end in the country.

They further said, “If NNPCL is showing interest in buying Dangote Refinery, then it is not far from pulling down President Tinubu’s government from addressing fuel crisis in the country, because NNPCL is doing so to frustrate Dangote Refinery from complementing Tinubu’s efforts. We don’t want a situation whereby the NNPCL is also out to frustrate President Bola Tinubu’s government from succeeding in making socio-economic life better for the citizenry.”

It added that NNPCL could not run Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries, hence that it had no capacity to manage an investment like the Dangote Refinery.