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- Falana Bombs NNPC Ltd; Says It’s Illegal To Fix Petrol Prices, Against PIA
The recent hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol has continued to draw widespread condemnation from many quarters in the country.
The Matrix reports that Nigerians woke up to another shocker on Wednesday morning when the state oil company , the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd, (NNPCL) retail outlets adjusted the pump price of petrol in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Many NNPCL outlets sold a litre of the product for ₦998, about ₦150 higher than the initial price of ₦855. The sudden increase set motorists and transporters in panic-buying mode as long queues have besieged filling stations.
Many filling stations not owned by the NNPCL immediately followed suit as they also incrementally adjusted their pump prices, with many selling as high as ₦1,050 in many parts of Lagos.
READ ALSO: NNPCL Fuel Price Hike: Depot Prices Rise Instantly
In Abuja, the situation was not different as NNPCL retail outlets hiked the price of the essential commodity from ₦897 to ₦1,030.
The fresh increase followed the September 2, 2024 increase by the NNPCL. The retail company had hiked the price per litre of petrol from ₦568 to ₦855, sparking outrage.
Reacting to this, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on the Federal government of Nigeria to return the price of petrol to below what it was as of June 2023.
TUC President, Festus Osifo made the demands at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.
“We want the price of the product to go below what it was before; not just reverse to what it was before but to go below.
“The solution we are proposing if implemented will take us to the price we had as of June last year,” Osifo stated, stressing that “there is no government in the world that doesn’t intervene in its critical sector” and that the Federal Government “shouldn’t leave it (the oil sector) to the vagaries and gyration of our naira”.
RAD ALSO: Petrol Price Hits N1,030 Per Litre At NNPC Outlets
The TUC leader harped on the availability, affordability and accessibility of petrol for all Nigerians, saying that the commodity is essential for all Nigerian households, even those without a second-hand value car.
The trade union placed its demands along the lines of affordability, availability and accessibility, saying, “We want the Federal Government to, through Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), give all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery.”
Osifo said the NNPCL should source refined petrol from other places if the Dangote Refinery cannot meet the current daily demands of Nigerians.
“If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.
“So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability,” the TUC boss stated.
The trade union also told the government to specially intervene in the sector by giving foreign exchange to Dangote Refinery at $1/N1,000 and not at the current over N1,600/$1 exchange rate to crash petrol prices
Similarly, Nigeria’s former Vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s haphazard and disingenuous approach to fuel subsidy management as the reason for the current economic crisis in the country.
This is even as he flayed the president for being undisturbed by the hardship in Nigeria.
In a statement on Thursday via X, Atiku said the handling of petrol subsidy by his administration caused the current economic crisis in Nigeria.
Abubakar’s statement followed the increase in petrol price by the NNPC Limited on Wednesday.
READ ALSO: NNPC Ltd No Longer Sole Offtaker Of Dangote Refinery Petrol- Reports
A day after the increase, Abubakar said inflation rate will not reduce due to the handling of the petrol subsidy.
“The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country,” Abubakar said.
“As things stand, there will be no let up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians.
“It is even more worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by the hardship in the country.”
On his part, Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has disclosed that it is illegal for NNPCL to fix petrol prices.
In a statement on Thursday, Falana said the action by the petroleum company contravened the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Falana said though the NNPCL claimed the market has been deregulated and market forces now determine petrol prices, “the NNPCL fixed the price of fuel refined by the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited last month. The so-called market forces were not allowed to fix the price”.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited announced new pump prices of fuel refined by the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company. Once again, the so-called market forces were not allowed to fix the new prices of fuel.
“The decisions of the NNPCL to fix the prices of imported fuel and locally refined fuel are illegal, nullity and void as they contravene the provisions of section 205 of the Petroleum Industry Act which stipulates that the prices of petroleum products shall be determined by market forces,” he said.
