From Femi Mustapha, in Kaduna
The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has thrown its weight behind the operations of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Industry amidst emerging controversies surrounding the facility.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof Tukur Muhammad-Baba issued to newsmen in Kaduna on Monday, the ACF expressed concern over the negative debates and controversies surrounding the world-class facility, which it described as a source of national pride.
“The ACF delegation, which visited the facility on July 30th, 2024, was impressed by its sophisticated quality testing and control laboratories, which meets and surpasses global industry standards,” it said.
The forum hailed Aliko Dangote, the initiator and promoter of DPRPI, as a courageous, visionary, and patriotic entrepreneur worthy of commendation and support.
The ACF also supported the ongoing investigations by the National Assembly into the claims and counterclaims about DPRPI, welcoming the directive from President Bola Tinubu to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to sell crude oil to DPRPI and other petroleum refining entities.
The forum called on other entrepreneurs and investors to emulate the DPRPI initiative and urged public regulatory agencies to facilitate the realization of the dreams of Indigenous entrepreneurs investing in Nigeria’s industrial development.
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.”
