The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the N143.8 fuel price that was announced by the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
In a statement issued by the President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC demanded immediate reversal of the pump price to the old price and added that the prices of crude oil in the global market had only increased slightly from the previous price before the downward price review was announced in May.
He labeled the hike in the fuel pump price and the planned electricity tariff hike as “potent threat to run millions of Nigerians under.”
The PPPRA announced a new price band for petrol on Wednesday.
The agency increased the pump price of fuel to NGN 143.80 in a circular dated July 1, 2020, and sent to oil marketers.
Wabba requested that the Federal Government rehabilitate the refineries and announce the timelines for rehabilitation exercise.
While chiding the PPPRA Executive Secretary, Saidu Abdulkadir, for the increase in fuel price, Wabba said: “He did not even feign pretence that government has abdicated its responsibility to protect Nigerians from the cut-throat tendencies of neo-liberal market forces.
“Nigerians would recall that the last downward review in the price of petrol was at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. The economic benefits of the so-called ‘downward’ review were hardly enjoyed by ordinary Nigerians who were mostly indoors.
“Just as the lockdown is being eased out and as soon as the interstate travel ban was lifted, the government decided to hike the petrol price. Nigerian people and workers are forced to interpret this move as grand mischief and deceit.”
