Gbenro Adesina
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the sudden increase of petrol pump price from N145 to N151.67 as well as increase in the electricity tariff from N24 to N66 per kwh.
The Federal Government, through the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), increased petrol pump price to N151.56.
According to a memo from the Agency, signed by D.O Abalaka, “the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is now one hundred and fifty-one naira, fifty-six kobo (N151.56k) per litre. This takes effect from September 2, 2020”.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN has said its members will sell the product at N162.00 per litre.
PDP on its twitter page, vehemently rejected the fresh increase in the price of fuel to N151 per liter and electricity tariff to N66 per kwh under the All Progressive Congress (APC)- led administration being led by the leadership of General Muhammadu Buhari, describing the increase as as callous, cruel and punishing.
The party demanded an immediate reversal of the prices to avert a national crisis, as the increase would result in upsurge in costs of goods and services and worsen the biting hardship being faced by Nigerians, who are already impoverished and overburdened by APC imposed high cost of living in the last five years.
The party asserted that by increasing the price of fuel from the N87 per litre it sold under the PDP to an excruciating N151, while at the same time, allowing the hike in electricity tariff from N30.23 per kwh to over N66, the APC has left no one in doubt that its agenda was to inflict pain and hardship on Nigerians to satisfy their selfish interests.
According to the party, the unjustifiable increase in the price of these essential supplies, coming barely a week after the APC brazenly posted a support for fuel price hike, while attempting to rationalise the excruciating hardship being suffered by Nigerians under the Buhari administration, has further confirmed that the APC was at the centre of the harsh policies of the Buhari Presidency.
The party stated, “It is distressing that the APC administration increased the cost of essential commodities at the time the leadership of other countries are offering palliatives to their citizens to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is instructive to add that our nation is doomed under the watch. We know that the APC is an unfeeling party, but it is indeed shocking that it could go to the extent of approving such a hike at this trying time, when many Nigerians are struggling to afford staple foods and other necessities of life. Our party challenges the APC and Buhari administration to publish the parametres with which it arrived at the increase of fuel price to N151 per litre given that with the prevailing values in the international market, the appropriate price template for domestic pump price in Nigeria ought not to be above N100 per liter”.
It continued, “Our party further challenges the APC-led Federal Government to publish details of its sleazy and over-bloated oil subsidy regime, including the involvement of APC interests in the claimed under-recovery for unnamed West African countries running into trillions of Naira, while Nigerians are made to bear the burden of high fuel costs. Moreover, the APC and its government have failed to allow an open investigation into allegations of fuel price overcharge as well as the fraudulent subsidy regime through which over N14 trillion had allegedly been frittered by unscrupulous individuals in the APC”.
“Our fear is that the APC is pushing Nigerians to the wall with its obnoxious and anti-people proclivities and we caution that nobody should misinterpret the peaceful and law-abiding nature of Nigerians as a sign of weakness. Our party, therefore, restates our call on the National Assembly to save the nation by calling the APC and its administration to order before they plunge our nation into chaos”, the party concluded.
