President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, played a decisive role in enabling the construction of his multi-billion-dollar refinery by intervening to clear 19 shrines from the project site.
In a video shared by The Cable via X on Friday, the businessman explained that construction workers could not begin work in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, because of numerous shrines located on the land.
Dangote said, “I must recognise and thank the Ooni of Ife for enabling the building of our factory. What happened was that when we got there, there were over 19 shrines at the site. Nobody was able to go near there to do anything.”
He noted that the traditional ruler personally went to the site and directed the removal of all the shrines, despite concerns about spiritual consequences.
“But Ooni went there, stood there and said ‘remove all of them. Let the gods come and talk to me’. Your Royal Majesty, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart because without that singular act of yours, I don’t think we would have been able to build the refinery.”
The Dangote Refinery, situated in the Dangote Industries Free Zone in Ibeju-Lekki, is the world’s largest single-train refinery with a processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.
Tribune Online reports that a few months ago, Dangote expressed readiness to expand the refinery beyond its current capacity.
He disclosed plans to scale up the facility in Ibeju-Lekki to 1.4 million barrels per day, aiming to make it the world’s largest refinery.
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