The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday advised
the federal government to stop fleecing Nigerians with high fuel price;
instead, it should immediately reduce the pump price to N70 per litre to
reflect the appropriate pricing template following the fall in the price of
crude oil in the international market.
The party in a statement signed by the National
Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it completely rejected the N121
per litre price announced by the federal government, which has even remained
unenforced, describing it as highly provocative and a further display of the
insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the plight of
Nigerians, particularly as they battle the social and economic impacts of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
PDP insisted that N121 per liter price amounts to
fleecing Nigerians of over N50 per litre of fuel.
This, it said, is in continuation of the N55 per
litre overcharge, which Nigerians had borne under the inappropriate N125 per
litre, which prevailed for months before it was brought down to N123.5 per
litre, in spite of the crash in international price for crude oil.
It further stated that it rejected the unnecessary
price pinching, demanding that the government should without further delay,
implement the appropriate price as well as declare and account for the billions
of naira accruable as overcharge since the crash in crude oil price.
According to the statement, "The failure to
reduce the pump price as well as the non-declaration of the overcharge is
completely unacceptable to Nigerians, as it only points to questions of
corruption in the system."
The PDP insisted that the APC and its government have
no justifiable reason to retain the pump price of fuel at over N70 per litre,
declaring that it again challenged the APC administration to disprove Nigerians
by immediately publishing the prevailing landing cost, depot cost, trucking
cost as well as the retail outlet admin cost, and show why the pump price
should be above N70 per litre.”
The party also urged the National Assembly to protect the
interest of the people by using their legislative instruments to prevail on the
federal government to implement the appropriate fuel pricing and account for
the overcharges.
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