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DSS summons Dangote refinery, NUPENG over union rights dispute
The Department of State Services (DSS) has called an urgent meeting with Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals management and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) amid escalating tensions regarding alleged violations of an agreement on workers’ rights to union membership.
The meeting, set for 3 p.m. on Friday, will also include representatives from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and other key parties.
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On September 9, Dangote management and NUPENG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the DSS headquarters in Abuja, guaranteeing workers the freedom to join any union without interference.
The signing was witnessed by officials from the NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), government ministers, and other stakeholders.
However, within 24 hours, NUPENG accused Dangote management of breaching the agreement, a claim the company denied. Earlier on the day of the meeting, the union reiterated its accusation, stating that Dangote Group was “economical with the truth.”
In a joint statement signed by NUPENG President Prince Williams Akporeha and General Secretary Afolabi Olawale, the union criticized a September 11, 2025 press release from Dangote Petroleum Refinery, alleging it distorted facts about worker relations and union freedom.
The statement reads in part: “The press statement by Dangote Petroleum Refinery dated 11th September 2025 further confirms the company’s aim to crush our union, NUPENG, as well as stifle competition, with the ultimate goal of increasing fuel prices in the long run.
“The attempt to create an illusion of division within our union is not only malicious but entirely fabricated. If a ‘faction of tanker drivers’ truly existed, Dangote should have persuaded them to call off the nationwide strike of Petroleum Tanker Drivers directed by NUPENG, which was effective, peaceful, and 100 percent successful.
“The refinery also falsely claims it does not prevent its truck drivers from joining NUPENG.
“The MoU signed on September 9, 2025, stemmed from the company’s earlier resistance to unionisation — a fact the agreement itself confirms. Yet, on September 11, Dangote Refinery ordered the removal of NUPENG stickers from all trucks, replacing them with those of the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association (DTCDA), a body allegedly created by the management. Our members have firmly resisted this directive.
“Individuals who have repeatedly lost elections in the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Branch since 2023 have now become spokespersons for the DTCDA. Some of them have been granting interviews to local and international media in support of the company. Nigerians should also be aware that some of these individuals are facing criminal charges (Charge No. CR/042/23) at the FCT High Court for violent crimes, including an attempt to assassinate elected leaders of the PTD Branch and NUPENG. During one of their attacks, NUPENG’s General Secretary was beaten into a coma and only revived in hospital.
“Nigerians must not be deceived by the company’s offer of free nationwide fuel delivery. This move is aimed at discouraging other employers from hiring tanker drivers so that only Dangote-employed drivers — compelled to join the DTCDA — will remain in the workforce. The strategy is clearly to crush NUPENG and its PTD Branch.
“It is also important to note that, apart from tanker drivers, the refinery’s operational and administrative staff have been obstructed from exercising their right to unionise. It is on record that Dangote Group does not permit unionisation in its cement and sugar plants across Nigeria. Nigerians should not support an arrangement that denies drivers and other workers in the Dangote Group their right to freedom of association.”
Dangote Group had not responded to the latest allegations at press time. Its previous statement maintained that union membership at its refinery is voluntary, consistent with Nigerian law and International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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