The ongoing dispute between the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) took a sharp new turn on Friday. The refinery directly challenged the union to name the officials responsible for spending a massive $18 billion on government-owned refineries that have produced no results.
This bold challenge came amidst a bitter disagreement over workers’ rights. Dangote Group issued a statement questioning why the state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna remain completely broken-down despite the colossal amount of money spent on them over the years.
The company pointed to recent comments by its owner, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who stated that $18 billion had been spent by successive governments on maintenance and repairs with nothing to show for it.
In its statement, the refinery challenged NUPENG to help solve this mystery for the Nigerian public. “We must begin to ask what has happened to all four FGN-owned refineries—Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna,” the company stated.
The firm then reminded the union of its own past actions, noting its opposition to a previous attempt to privatise the failing refineries. “When Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries were privatised to a consortium Dangote was a member of in 2007, the same NUPENG were amongst the town criers against the privatisation.”
The company then put the direct question to the union: “To date, about $18bn has been wasted to rehabilitate the refineries without any success. Who are the people who spent all these humongous amounts without any result? Can NUPENG assist Nigerians to unravel this?”
This new war of words has erupted while both groups are also trying to settle a separate labour dispute. The conflict began when NUPENG accused the refinery of not allowing its new tanker drivers to join the union and of trying to create a company-controlled union instead.
NUPENG had taken strong action earlier in the week, shutting down fuel depots in protest. The union had claimed that despite signing a peace agreement on Tuesday, the refinery management had almost immediately broken its promises.
The union’s leaders, Williams Akporeha and Afolabi Olawale, had called the company’s earlier statement “an epitome of unconscionable capitalist falsehood aimed at hoodwinking Nigerians and crushing NUPENG.”
To resolve this, another meeting was held on Friday at the office of the Department of State Services in Abuja. After this meeting, NUPENG President Akporeha simply stated that “The status of the communique must be maintained by all parties.”
The Dangote refinery has firmly denied all accusations that it is against unions. In its statement, the company said, “Assertions of monopolistic intent are both legally and factually incorrect.” It reiterated its full support for workers’ rights, stating that employees are free to join any recognised trade union.
The argument has now expanded from a simple labour dispute into a much broader debate about accountability, past corruption, and the future of Nigeria’s oil industry.
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