President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has once again sounded the alarm over systemic sabotage in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, asserting that the “oil mafia” wields far more power than drug cartels.
Speaking during a press briefing at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, on Sunday, Dangote described the criminal organisations undermining local refining as immensely powerful, causing significant financial and physical damage to his refinery as well as national infrastructure.
“I told you that drug mafia, they’re actually smaller than the people who are in oil and gas. Because most of the people who are in the drugs, you know yourselves, but in the oil sector, there are so many people,” he said.
Dangote revealed the massive financial losses his refinery has suffered, emphasizing the extreme security measures necessary to protect it.
“In this refinery, we have $82 million of stolen items, and what they were actually trying to do is to make sure that we go and put a massive claim on insurance. So when we put a massive claim on insurance, you know, there’s no free lunch.
“So, continuously, our insurance premiums will just keep going up. So, yes, there is sabotage. And I’m sure, you know, we should go and ask all the people who have even built, you know, the modular refineries. And I challenge any one of them to say that nothing was stolen.
“That’s why we have more security people in this refinery than actual workers of the refinery.”
He recounted specific acts of sabotage, including the removal of a critical spare part from a massive boiler while it was in operation.
“We have a boiler. 400 tons is the largest boiler ever built in the world. It was under operation. Somebody went there and removed a spare part out of it.
“If I tell you the sabotages that we went through, including some of the machine manufacturers, we are on the verge of going to court, so I cannot tell you what, but if I tell you, you will now know what I’m saying.”
Dangote also highlighted the destruction of national assets, pointing to the widespread damage across Nigeria’s petroleum infrastructure as evidence of sabotage.
“How come now, for example, all the pipelines that were built, right from the military days to date, none of them, the one that we have, which is from where I am from, Kano, that depot, we are not using trucks. 22 depots were built. They are all piped. All 22 depots, actually, even the sediments, they don’t have it anymore. They have destroyed the pipes, all of them.”
He further criticised regulatory failures and alleged corruption in the downstream petroleum sector, citing the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed. Dangote alleged that Ahmed paid about $5 million for the secondary school education of his four children in Switzerland, calling for a full investigation and public explanation.
Dangote’s concerns over sabotage are not new. In June 2024, he described repeated attempts by both local and international criminal organisations to sabotage his refinery project, warning that opposition came from international traders and local marketers who prefer profiting from imported petroleum rather than supporting local refining.
In September 2025, he reiterated the threat, alleging deliberate efforts to frustrate refinery operations and stating that “the international traders and the local marketers all connive to suffocate any refinery.”
