Billionaire businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has urged the Nigerian Navy to mobilize its forces to ensure the safety of his newly built refinery in Lekki, Lagos State.
Dangote made the call at a meeting with Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo, the Chief of Naval Staff, at Naval Headquarters in Abuja. He claimed the appeal was necessary due to increased insecurity in the country’s marine sector.
He said: “I am here to look for a partnership between Dangote Group and the Nigerian Navy.
“There are a lot of things we can do between the Navy and the Dangote Group. I think we can be two hands while we can clap together. It means that you, do your own beat, we will also do our own beat to support you and make sure you do your job.
“It doesn’t really mean only what affects us, No! But also what affects the Navy in terms of your own operation. Maybe your facilities. My main other point is the setting up of the permanent Naval protection base at our refinery.
“As you are aware, we are building the largest single refinery with 650,000 barrels/day which means we can actually process one-third of Nigeria’s production, and that is quite a lot of activities.
“When you look at the services of the refinery, we are going to be the largest single line of refinery in the world.
“That’s a very huge operation. There will be a lot of movement of ships in and out and there is no way we can succeed on what we want to do without the help of the Nigerian Navy.
“Definitely, we have to partner, you will be our major partner because there must be peace, there must be security and protection before we can even operate.”
