Aliko Dangote, chairman of the Dangote Group, says his refinery has incurred losses amounting to $82 million due to theft.
On September 26, Dangote Petroleum Refinery confirmed sacking a “small number of workers” over repeated acts of sabotage.
But after consultations with the government and relevant unions, the Dangote Group decided to redeploy the workers on October 1.
Speaking at a media parley at the refinery on Sunday, Dangote accused some employees of sabotage, saying it had cost the refinery a significant amount of money.
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“In this refinery, we have lost $82 million to stolen items,” he said.
The businessman said the perpetrators had an agenda to compel the refinery to file substantial insurance claims, as this could lead to a continuous increase in insurance premiums.
Citing instances of sabotage, Dangote said some workers were caught tying the refinery’s cables to their bodies in an attempt to smuggle them out.
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He also narrated how an individual sabotaged an operational boiler by removing parts.
To curb the trend, Dangote said the refinery employed “more security people” — over 2000 individuals — than “actual workers”.
“You should go and ask all the people who have even built the modular refinery. I challenge any one of them to say that nothing was stolen,” he said.
Dangote also claimed that Mele Kyari, former group chief executive officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, told him that more than 100 sabotage incidents occurred at the Port Harcourt refinery during his tenure.
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“If I tell you the sabotages that we went through, including from some of the machine manufacturers,” he said.
“We’re on the verge of going to court, so I cannot tell you… but if I tell you, you will now know what I’m saying.”
WHY FREE PETROLEUM PRODUCTS DELIVERY IS DELAYED
On September 15, the refinery said it commenced free delivery of petrol — but at the news conference, Dangote admitted that the initiative has since stalled due to missing seals.
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Speaking on the cause of implementation delay, Dangote said the refinery had not been able to procure the “automatic seals” required to curb theft.
A seal is a tamper-evident security device used to prevent or detect unauthorised access and theft in trucks.
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“The seals that we shipped, unfortunately, the containers got missing, and we have now decided to bring it (sic) back here,” he said.
“And hopefully it’ll come sometime in the next one week to 10 days.”
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Explaining the seals’ importance, Dangote said without them, some of the petroleum products could be stolen.
“So what we are going to do is to try and make sure that your goods are safe because you are paying us and we are taking the risk of delivering to you, including insurance,” he said.
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The businessman added that about 800 to 900 CNG trucks are in the port and would soon be delivered.
Dangote also condemned the quality of trucks used to load petroleum products in the country, saying some of them are “not fit to be loaded.”
“So whether we buy these trucks or not, the industry needs a major revolution by making sure that there are enough available good trucks to be given,” he said.
He claimed that “it is only in Nigeria” that trucks are used for long journeys, saying the majority of countries in East and Southern Africa have functional pipelines for transporting petroleum products..
“Even in Ghana, they are using mainly pipelines,” he said.
Dangote alleged that Nigerian pipelines have been destroyed “in connivance between the marketers and co”.
