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…Calls For Its Rejection By All Stakeholders and Masses
Ben Dunno, Warri
The national leadership of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has questioned the rationale behind the new pump prices of fuel across the states announced yesterday by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), noting that it was wrong for government to still be fixing prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in a deregulated sector.
Consequently, the body called for the outright rejection of NNPCL new fuel price regime by all stakeholders, including Major and Independent marketers, organized labour, civil society groups as well as Nigerian masses who had been subjected to further hardship since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, declared the end of fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech on Monday, May 29, 2023.
Making its stand known in a Press statement signed by its national President, Comrade (Dr) Kehinde Prince Taiga, Delta state branch Chairman, Comrade Jonathan Giama and a former national President, Comrade Sunny Enenuvwedia, now Board of Trustees (BOT), the body faulted the disparity in the prices for each states of the federation.
According to the statement; “The issue of fuel subsidy removal had been on the table for a very long time, even before the All Progressives Congress (APC) government led by President Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of leadership in 2015”.
“One would have thought that within the 8years of Buhari’s administration, all the issues that bothers on its implementation would have been perfected with various stakeholders alongside the intervention plans to cushion its effect on the masses put in motion”.
“But what do we have today? A situation where the organized labour and other stakeholders are still having disagreements on the issue with the new APC government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, thereby throwing the entire nation into a state of confusion and helplessness, following the declaration of its removal by the President in his maiden address to the nation”.
“And as if the insensitivity of both the past and present APC government wasn’t enough, the Managing Director of NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari, went on to announce a new price regime of between N488 to N550 across the country, bringing to question the parameters used in determining these prices and the rush in releasing the new rates when the disagreements between the government and organized labour have not been resolved”.
“It is based on this that urged the various stakeholders in this sector, particularly the Major and Independent marketers, organized labour, civil society and the masses to resist the new prices released by NNPCL as it failed to capture the interest of the poor citizens in arriving at the amount fixed”, it stated.
CDHR also urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to come out once again and address the nation inorder to give a clearer direction on the issue, so that the present confused state his inaugural speech had generated across the nation can be normalized.
Earlier in the day the body leadership and some of its members had clampdown on some of petrol station in Udu and Warri council areas that were selling outrageous pump prices and hoarding the product in their stations.
Some of the filling stations visited by the body included; FUTGA at Otokutu, Christo at Mofor, Rain Oil at DSC Roundabout and Matrix at Onos junction along Udu road, where the marketers claimed they bought the product at the rate of N500 per liter from the designated tank fe‘‘em operators both within and outside the state.
