President Muhammadu Buhari, has on Monday, September 5, dismissed rumours making wave that the Federal Government was planning to increase the price of petrol.
It could be recalled, that the former Group Managing Directors, GMDs, of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had during the weekend, advised the Federal Government to increase the price of petrol.
According to them, the petrol price of N145/litre is not congruent with the liberalisation policy, especially with the foreign exchange rate and other price determining components, such as crude cost, Nigerian Ports Authority charges, among several others.
In reaction, the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, the Trade Union Congress, TUC, and other groups, had threatened fire and brimstone, as they indicated plans to shutdown Nigeria, if implemented.
One of such is the National Publicity Secretary, Afenifere group, Yinka Odumakin, who said,
“There is a limit to which you can tax poverty, it is only prosperity you can continue to make demands on.“If you are unable to provide an enabling environment for people to improve their lives, and you continue to tax them wantonly, you risk the rage of the poor,” Odumakin noted.
In a bid to calm frayed nerves, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, who spoke on behalf of the President, dismissed the report as mere speculation, maintaining that the Federal Government was not contemplating a further increase in the price of petrol.
Kachikwu, who made this known alongside with the GMD NNPC, Maikanti Baru, disclosed that the Federal Government would not increase the price of fuel.
He said, “Have you seen any memo to that effect?”
Baru, buttressing Kachikwu’s claims, also dismissed the report as mere recommendation, stating that, ”There is nothing like that.”
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, Sotonye Iyoyo, who also spoke, disclosed that the proposal was the personal opinion of the former oil chief.
He said, “If it was a recommendation, that is what it is, a personal opinion.“I’m not aware government is planning any fuel price increase.“We are in a liberalised market already,” Iyoyo noted.
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