NLC Rejects N143 New Fuel Price, Says Height Of FG Insensitivity

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the new price increase of premium motor spirit (PMS), commonly called petrol, from N121 to N143 per litre announced by the Federal Government.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had yesterday, Wednesday announced the fuel retail price increase to N140.80/143.80 per litre from N121.50 per litre, after reviewing prevailing market fundamentals in the month of June and considering marketers’ realistic operating costs.

But the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, demanded an immediate reversal, contending that the new price, amid the ravaging coronavirus pandemic, will kill businesses and worsen poverty level across the country.

According to a statement obtained by MERIDIAN SPY, Wabba, while describing the decision as a height of the government’s Insensitivity to its citizens, argued that the regulatory agency contradicted itself when it said that the latest price increase described as an “advisory” was meant to regulate a product that government claims had been de-regulated.

“That this new hike in the pump price of petrol was announced without the approval of the board of the PPPRA and the oversight ministry speaks volume of the arbitrariness and public contempt in the operations of PPPRA. We find this deeply disturbing,” said the NLC President.

“It is also very embarrassing that the PPPRA boss, while trying to defend the indefensible, appeared to be out of sorts and ready to clutch at any available straws to sell his ice block merchandise to Eskimos.

“Apart from contradicting himself that PPPRA is still trying to regulate a deregulated product through ‘advisories’, the PPPRA went on to exert more nails on the coffin of his polemics when he argued that PPPRA was just like the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, that would always act to protect the public interest.

“That was how far the niceties went. The rest of the statement by the PPPRA boss was about how PPPRA plans to protect investors and increase their profit.”