Billionaire Aliko Dangote has revealed how the Ooni of Ife, HIM Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, intervened before his company could build a refinery on land that housed shrines.

Dangote said that when he and others arrived at the land, they couldn't get near it. According to him, the Ooni had to intervene.

He made this known while speaking during the launch of the Aliko Dangote Foundation’s N100 billion annual Education Support Programme.

The billionaire 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. 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.”

ASA