New Telegraph

FUEL PRICE HIKE: You’re insensitive, Afenifere, Ohanaeze, AYF, PDP tell FG

Frontline socio-cultural and political groups, Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday faulted the announcement by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that it had increased the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (aka petrol), to N155.17 per litre from N147.67 per litre.

The organisations condemned the new price increase, insisting that the Federal Government was insensitive to the plight of Nigerians, given the recent increase in electricity tariff, COVID-19 pandemic, #EndSARS protests, among other “unfavourable” economic policies.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, had said in September that the Federal Government had stepped back in fixing the price of petrol, adding that market forces and crude oil price would continue to determine the cost of the product. Recall that the PPMC had in an internal memo dated November 11, 2020, and signed by Tijjani Ali, said the new ex-depot price would take effect from yesterday.

The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots. In its PMS price proposal for November, the PPMC had put the landing cost of petrol at N128.89 per litre, up from N119.77 per litre in September/October. It said the estimated minimum pump price of the product would increase to N161.36 per litre from N153.86 per litre.

Afenifere: It’s unjust on Nigerians

However, Afenifere in its reaction, berated the Federal Government-led All Progressives Congress (APC) over the hike in the pump price of petrol. The group, which fumed over the development, stated that the increment was unjust on Nigerians, who had been stretched beyond limit. Afenifere’s Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said the move would further heighten the hardship Nigerians had been subjected to since the inception of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

Speaking with Saturday Telegraph, Odumakin said none of the promises made by APC during the electioneering campaign as regards the petroleum sector had been fulfilled instead, it has been the other way round. Odumakin said: “That’s their new package after End SAR. As at today, nobody knows the landing cost of petrol.

“They say it’s the market forces. So, the market forces operating in NNPC office are placing further hardship on Nigerians. “In 2014, the President promised that they are going to fix all the refineries.

I remember that it was late Tam David-West who said that fuel will be sold for N40 per litre under Buhari. Now it’s selling for N170. “These people think that they can tap the people out of the crisis they have created. We have told them clearly that they have reached the end of the road, unless they restructure and make the country more productive.” Meanwhile, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the filling stations visited showed that the pump price on meters was yet to reflect the directive of the PPMC.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo chides

FG Ohanaeze Ndigbo yesterday lashed out on the Federal Government for the latest increase in pump price of petrol. Reacting to the increment, the group’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Chuks Ibegbu, said it was a shame that Nigeria which is about the highest oil producer in the world was still exporting crude oil and importing refined products. Ibegbu said: “It is a shame that Nigeria produces oil, that God richly blessed with oil and gas is making unaffordable to Nigerians and the people, its a shame for the leadership of this country from the president to the blast people that are leading this country that Nigerians cannot enjoy their God-given resources. “It is a shame to all of them that they cannot allow Nigerians to enjoy their God-given product. They take crude oil to foreign land to refine them, bring them here and they pay oil subsidy to criminals, they allow criminals to control the entire process.”

Govt insensitive-Arewa youths

The National President of the Arewa Youth Forum (AYF), Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu, also described the increase in the pump price of petrol as insensitive. Gujungu told Saturday Telegraph that, “President Muhammadu Buhari is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians. With so much suffering in the land, this administration still has the impudence to increase the price of fuel at a time like this. “I believe there is a disconnect between this administration and the Nigerian people. While the government is saying something, the people of seeing a different thing entirely. “The government needs to know the level of suffering in the country and come up with the needed antidote to tackle the problem head on before it degenerates into something else. “Government needs to come up with measures to ameliorate this level of suffering and deprivations and not fuel increase.”

Price increase wicked, unbearable – PDP

Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the increase in the pump price of fuel to N170 per liter by the APC government is unbearable and unacceptable, particularly given the prevailing excruciating economic crunch already foisted on Nigerians by President Muhammadu Buhari administration. PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the increase would worsen the already suffocating economic situation in the country. The statement reads: “Such hike will also be an additional log tied on the economic neck of Nigerians.” The party added: “It is evident that the continuous increase in the pump price of fuel under opaque and nebulous indices is a product of incompetence and large scale corruption being perpetrated by a few individuals in the Buhari administration, who are bent on fleecing Nigerians and holding our nation to ransom. “This appears to provide answers to why the APC administration has failed to offer any explanation on huge fraud going on in the management of our nation’s oil resources including the alleged stealing over N9.6 trillion ($25 billion) by APC interests, as detailed in the leaked NNPC memo.”

Many stations closed, others selling at N160 in Kaduna

Following another increase in the pump price of petrol by the present administration, many filing stations in Kaduna are now under lock and key. This is as some others are still selling at the old price, while many of the filling stations visited by our correspondent were still selling at N160 per litre. Our correspondent gathered that many that were selling earlier in the morning had closed their door to customers. Some of those that were not selling include Oando filling station, Vine filling station and the NNPC retail outlet all along Kachia road in the southern part of Kaduna metropolis.

We are still gathering information – ACF

Responding to the increase, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) told Saturday Telegraph that it was still early in the day and the forum is still gathering information before making its response known. The National Publicity Secretary of the group, Emmanuel Yawe, said: “We are gathering information for appropriate response.”

Kano IPMAN directs members to sell at N170

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Kano State branch has directed its members across the state to sell petrol from N168 to N170 per litre. The state’s Chairman of the IPMAN, comprising Kano, Bauchi, Jigawa and the Katsina states, Bashir Dan- Mallam, while addressing journalists in on Wednesday, said the association heeded to PPMC advice for the upward review of the pump price of petrol as contained in the circular. He said: “I call on all our members within our branch to immediately change the price of their litres from N160 per litre to between N168 and N170 per litre. “This development came after we received a circular from PPMC, advising us on the upward review of the price after it reviewed the market fundamentals gorgeous the month of November 2020.

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