The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has endorsed the operations of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Industry, affirming its support despite ongoing controversies surrounding the facility.
In a statement released on Monday to journalists in Kaduna by Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the ACF’s national publicity secretary, the organization expressed concern about the divisive discussions and controversies surrounding the state-of-the-art facility, which it saw as a source of pride for the country.
“The ACF delegation, which visited the facility on July 30th, 2024, was impressed by its sophisticated quality testing and control laboratories, which meet and surpass global industry standards,” it said.
Aliko Dangote, the man behind DPRPI, was praised by the forum as a brave, visionary, and patriotic businessman deserving of praise and assistance.
Along with applauding President Bola Tinubu’s order to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to sell crude oil to DPRPI and other petroleum refining companies, the ACF also supported the National Assembly’s ongoing investigations into the allegations and counterclaims regarding DPRPI.
The forum encouraged public regulatory agencies to help indigenous entrepreneurs realize their aspirations of investing in Nigeria’s industrial development and exhorted other business owners and financiers to follow the DPRPI model.
The ACF also urged the Nigerian Government and other African nations to resist attempts to blackmail and deny their rights to industrialize and develop their societies.
The statement read, “DPRPI should in all fairness be a source of much national pride, as opposed to the vituperative tales, innuendos and questionable assertions, misinformation, etc., being bandied about, in the press and social media, against DPRPI.
“Aliko Dangote, initiator and promoter of DPRPI, has been an indisputable courageous, visionary and patriotic entrepreneur in Nigeria and Africa, worthy of commendation and support domestically and beyond.
“The misbegotten strategy of putting down DPRPI and Aliko Dangote is a great disincentive to domestic investors just which also sends wrong signals to foreign investors.
“It is particularly distressing that some oil-related public and business entities like the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd and other agencies in the sector seem to make themselves the impression of purveying dissemination and misinformation about the DPRPI.
“The Nigerian Government, and indeed those of all other African nations, should marshal and deploy all diplomatic influence and other policy resources with which to refuse the attempts to blackmail and deny the rights to industrialize and develop our societies and emerge from the dark recesses of underdevelopment to which we have been cocooned for centuries.”
