The Oduduwa Progressive Economic Forum, OPEF, has accused the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMAN, of speaking for those it described as ‘evil cabal’ that has crippled Nigeria’s refining capacity for decades and sustained the fraud-ridden subsidy regime, leaving ordinary citizens and small industries in perpetual hardship.

In a statement on Sunday by its Executive Director, Dr Rotimi Adeyanju, OPEF alleged the latest interventions by DAPPMAN were nothing more than “the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob”, describing the association’s commentary on the Dangote Refinery as a carefully dressed-up defence of vested interests that fear the disruption of their long-standing domination of the downstream oil sector.

Recall that DAPPMAN’s Executive Secretary, Olufemi Adewole, had lon Saturday warned against what it called “misleading narratives” that credit one facility alone for stabilising fuel supply.

Adewole argued that Dangote currently supplies only 30 to 35 per cent of national demand, while DAPPMAN members continue to provide the balance through imports.

But OPEF dismissed the statement as “a desperate smokescreen,” insisting that the very marketers now eager to protect their turf were the ones who presided over the decay of Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries, pocketed subsidies through round-tripping, and condemned millions of citizens to darkness, unemployment, and poverty.

His statement read, “For decades, these cabals controlled Nigeria’s energy destiny like feudal lords. They destroyed our refineries, forced the country into perpetual importation, and bled the treasury through subsidy scams. They are the same hands that kept our small industries in ruins, denying millions of Nigerians jobs and power. Now, they want to frustrate Dangote Refinery because it threatens their empire of rent-seeking. Nigerians will not allow it.

OPEF emphasised that while DAPPMAN attempted to cast itself as a defender of fair competition, its record betrayed the opposite.

“There is no nobility in pretending to defend market stability when your past is defined by sabotage, hoarding, smuggling, and fraudulent importation of substandard products,” Adeyanju said.

Responding directly to DAPPMAN’s claims that Dangote’s periodic fuel price cuts destabilise competitors, OPEF countered that Nigerians have been the real beneficiaries.

“If a domestic refinery reduces pump prices, that is called relief for citizens. Only a cartel that has grown fat on monopoly would call cheaper fuel a destabilising act,” the forum noted.

OPEF also challenged DAPPMAN’s assertion that it supplies the bulk of Nigeria’s fuel, arguing that such imports were never a favour to the people but a lucrative racket.

“For decades, Nigerians paid with their sweat, blood, and taxes so that a handful of marketers could import fuel under a fraudulent subsidy regime. Today, that stronghold has been broken,that is why they are angry,” Adeyanju said.

The forum further accused DAPPMAN of hypocrisy over its quality claims, noting that the same marketers often flooded the country with products rejected abroad.

“ We still remember toxic petrol shipments, long queues, and endless scarcity. Let them not insult our memory,” OPEF added.

The forum called on President Bola Tinubu, regulators, and security agencies to resist attempts to destabilise the refinery through what it described as “sponsored propaganda and cartel manoeuvres,” urging instead for policies that protect domestic refining and ensure transparent competition.

“Nigerians are weary of gimmicks and games. The age of deceit by fuel cabals is over.”