The Federal Government on Friday, January 20, 2023, denied giving any directives to marketers to raise the pump price of petrol from N180 per litre to N195.
The denial comes a day after marketers raised the price of petrol after a memo from Federal Government owned NNPC Retails Limited.
Despite the hike in rate, the queues remained at petrol stations in Abuja with the stations dispensing at the new pump price.
Timipre Sylva, the minister of state Petroleum Resources in a statement by his media aide denied that the government gave the order for the price hike.
Sylva said President Muhammadu Buhari has not approved any price increase for PMS as reported in the media.
According to him, “President Muhammadu Buhari has not approved any increase in the price of PMS or any other petroleum product for that matter. There is no reason for President Muhammadu Buhari to renege on his earlier promise not to approve any increase in the price of PMS at this time. Mr President is sensitive to the plights of the ordinary Nigerian and has said repeatedly that he understands the challenges of the ordinary Nigerian and would not want to cause untold hardship for the electorates’.
“Government will not approve any increase of PMS secretly without due consultations with the relevant stakeholders. The President has not directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) or any agency for that matter to increase the price of fuel. This is not the time for any price increase in pump price of PMS”.
The Minister noted that “What is playing out is the handiwork of mischief makers and those planning to discredit the achievements of Mr President in the oil and gas sector of the economy. I appeal to Nigerians to remain calm and law abiding as the government is working hard to bring normalcy to fuel supply and distribution in the country”.
Buhari Hardships: Commuters Groaning As Fuel Still Sells For N380/Litre In Benue
Commuters and motorists in Benue State are groaning over the price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol which is still selling for as high as N380 per litre despite the intervention of the NNPC Limited.
The situation has been made worse by the unavailability of the product in virtually all the filling stations owned by major marketers in the state.
Findings indicated that while the few Independent Marketers who have products sell to desperate motorists for between N270 and N300 per litre, black marketers sell for between N360 and N380 per litre.
The NNPC Mega Station on Otukpo Road which is selling at government-approved prices cannot be easily accessed as vehicle owners make frantic efforts to gain entrance into the station to buy the product.
Some of the motorists who could not hide their displeasure over the unabated development appealed to the authorities to intervene and address the issue.
David Okube, a commercial motorcycle operator, who was among the multitude of riders who were waiting to purchase the product from the Mega Station lamented that major petrol stations in the state were deliberately making life unbearable for the people by not dispensing products to the public.
“Why will it be only the Maga Station that is selling fuel to the public? Why are other major marketers not selling weeks after the government took steps to ensure that there is enough product in the country?
“Even nearby Abuja which was hard hit by scarcity now has products. But when you come to Benue state they are selling to us at between N270 and N300 per litre while the black marketers are selling for about N380 per litre some even sell for N400, especially at night.
“We cannot continue like this because the people are suffering. If you come to Mega Station to buy you will spend the whole day here and if you are unlucky you might not get to buy before they luck up,” he said.
Also, a medical doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday, December 30, 2022, lamented that it was unacceptable for Nigerians to continue to go through pains in order to buy petrol.
“How can a responsible and responsive government allow its citizens go through this kind of pains in order to buy fuel? I am a medical doctor who is supposed to be in the hospital attending to patients but I abandoned that assignment to search for fuel. Why are all the major marketers in Makurdi not selling fuel? Why are we still buying fuel for about N300 per litre in Benue? It is killing, to say the least.”
Source: Vanguard
