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Benjamin Babine, Abuja
The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has reacted to the recent increase in petroleum price announced on Wednesday by the Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC), calling the development a ‘salt to injury’ situation.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja, Wabba said the Federal Government are taking Nigerians for granted and went on to stress that the NLC rejects the increase and can no longer assure industrial peace if the increment stands.
He said: “It’s like Nigerians are being taken for a ride, the increase in price of petroleum is like adding sult to injury. Petroleum has now been increased more than three times in three months, only yesterday they hiked the tariff of electricity. And to compound it they also reduced the interest rate of savings which effects mostly the poor and the vulnerable.”
“While rejecting this with the strongest terms, I think Nigerian government is taking Nigerians for granted. At the end of the day, Nigerians are becoming poorer and poorer, in fact many people are already on the edge. Many workers are already on the edge,” Wabba said.
He went on: “Certainly we cannot guarantee industrial peace and harmony, and we will have to call our organs and we will have to also react but we reject it in its entirety. They have betrayed the trust of Nigerians, for Nigerians to be protected against the economic challenge that is affecting us.”
This new increase follows the most recent increase on August 4th, when Nigerians woke up to discover that oil marketers had adjusted their prices from N143.80k to between N149 and N150 a litre.
