Saturday, October 11, 2025 - Thousands of protesters comprising students, workers, women, youths and members of civil society organisations stormed the Niger Bridge at the boundary between Asaba in Delta and Onitsha, in Anambra State to demand support for local refineries including that of the Dangote Refinery.
Protesters carried various placards with inscriptions such
as ‘Stop Petroleum Importation Now’, ‘Encourage Local Refineries’; ‘Oil
cartels, stop the Sabotage; Dangote Refinery is a Blessing to our Economy’;
‘Nigerians demand Prioritization of Crude Supply to Local Refineries’; ‘Place
Tariff on Import’; ‘Protect Jobs and the Nigeria Economy’; ‘National Unity
Against Sabotage: Reclaiming Our Petroleum Sector for the people’, chanted
solidarity songs as they marched towards the head bridge.
The peaceful protest organized under the aegis of the
Partners for National Economic Progress (PANEP) caused gridlock at the Head
Bridge as the protesters occupied the entrance to the bridge, leaving vehicular
movement paralyzed for some hours.
Heavily armed security personnel were present at the rally
to prevent hoodlums from hijacking the peaceful protest.
The protest rally tagged ‘Mega Citizens’ Rally and the
Movement against Sabotage and Economic Saboteurs in the Nigerian Petroleum
Sector: the Asaba rally, attracted hundreds of onlookers, residents and
passersby who urged the government to listen to the demands of the protesters
which according to them, are to protect the nation’s economy.
One of the conveners who read the speech on behalf of the
group, Comrade Danesi Momoh, thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his
support for local refining, and urged his administration to continue to use
instruments of government against sabotage and ensure constant crude supply to
refinery at a fair price and to the volume of the quota due to it.
He said the rally and movement held to end economic sabotage
in Nigeria, save the Dangote Refinery, strengthen the campaign for local oil
refining in Nigeria, was sequel to the Abuja Independence rally of October 2,
2025 and the Kaduna Rally of October 6, 2025 on the same subject.
He further said: ‘’This is a powerful movement of the people
to demand freedom from a heartless unpatriotic cartel that has held the country
down. Their reign is over.”
” This has become evident, the Nigerian people have risen to
this very important and urgent occasion of national economic salvation by
rooting out all manifestations of the Nigerian oil cartel, whether in the forms
of PENGASSAN, NUPENG, DAPPMAN, PETROAN or Government Agencies’.
‘’These people and their agents are public enemies, with
PENGASSAN which has shown the ugliest face as public enemy number one! There
will no longer be any space for dubious labour leaders and their cohorts to
operate and no way for them to hide their monstrous faces.”
0 Comments