The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the major opposition party in Nigeria, has released a statement asking the Federal Government to stop fleecing Nigerians with high fuel price, by immediately reducing the pump price to N70 per litre as against N121 to reflect the appropriate pricing template following the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.
PDP in a statement released on Tuesday 2nd June 2020, by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said that the party completely rejects 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 ruling party of the All Progressives Congress (APC)to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as they battle the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Official PDP Nigeria
The party insisted that a N121 per litre price amounts to fleecing Nigerians of over N50 per litre of fuel. This the party 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 the international price of crude oil.
“PDP rejects the unnecessary price pinching and demands that the Federal 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.
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”, Mr Kola added.
The PDP in their statement, also insisted that the APC and its government have no justifiable reason to retain the pump price of fuel at over N70 per litre. The party said they challenged the
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 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