Students Protest in Oyo, Rally Support for Dangote Refinery
A coalition of student groups under the aegis of the National Association of Oduduwa Students, Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest in Ibadan, Oyo State, in solidarity with the Dangote Refinery, amid its ongoing faceoff with oil workers’ unions — PENGASSAN, NUPENG, and the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN).
The protesters, who converged at the Iwo Road Roundabout, at the end of the Ibadan–Lagos Expressway, chanted solidarity songs and marched through major routes carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” “#StopSabotagingFuelInNigeria,” “#EndPENGASSAN,” “#EndDAPPMAN,” and “#DangoteRefineryIsANationalAsset.”
Speaking with journalists during the rally, some of the student leaders said the protest was to draw attention to what they described as “attempts to frustrate indigenous industrial growth” and to demand a peaceful resolution of the dispute affecting the refinery’s operations.
They urged the Federal Government to protect local investors and ensure uninterrupted operations at the Dangote Refinery, which they described as a critical national asset for energy sufficiency and economic development.
Security personnel were on ground to monitor the situation, and there were no reports of violence or obstruction of traffic as of press time.
