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The Nigerian Government said on Monday that it has no plan to jerk up the price of petrol. Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, gave the clarification following fears of yet another hike in the pump price of petroleum products in the country.
The government on May 11 liberalised the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, prompting an increase in pump price of petrol from N86 and N86.5 to N145.
Describing media reports of the purported plan of another hike in fuel price as untrue, the minister, who was accompanied by the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, told State House correspondents that the Federal Government has no such plan.
The fear over the purported plan of the price hike was fuelled after a meeting of Group Managing Directors of NNPC last weekend which said that current N145 price cap for the price of petrol was no longer sustainable, especially with the current forex challenges.
Only last month, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) advised against an increase of the pump price of petrol as a result of scarcity of foreign exchange.
The South West Chairman of the union, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, gave the advice in Lagos on backdrop of calls by some oil marketers for increase in pump price of petrol.
Korodo, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) urged the government to implore the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to help bring in more petrol through their business partners in foreign countries.
“The government should not base the pump price of petrol on availability of foreign exchange; this will make the Nigerians to be at the mercy of oil marketers.
“Any increase in pump price of petroleum by the government will not be accepted by Nigerians.
“The government should therefore find other means of fixing petrol pump price instead of placing on what is not available.
“This is the time IOCs should rescue the oil and gas sector and use the advantage of their foreign investments to get the product into the country instead of looking for foreign exchange that is not available.
“Nigerians have been pushed to the wall and any increase in the pump price of petrol will not be in their interest,” he said.
Korodo said any increase in the pump price of petrol will not be accepted by Nigerians because of the hardship they are going through now. (NAN)
