NANS, group threaten protests, marketers want PEF scrapped
Fuel scarcity, at the weekend, resurfaced in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, following the reported hike in pump price of petroleum products by the Federal Government.
The Guardian learnt that some filling stations were dispensing petrol at between N180 and N220 per litre, while racketeers sold the product at the range of N300 to N350.
This is as a group, Arise for Good Governance, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently redress the situation in the interest of peace and welfare of Nigerians.
Its Kogi coordinator, Solomon Andrew Agada, who made the appeal yesterday at a press conference in the capital, regretted that government could still inflict more pains on the citizens in this era of COVID-19 and other security challenges in the country. He said Nigerians had rejected the move, noting that the hardship caused by the adjustment in price in the last couple of days was enormous.
Agada threatened that his organisation would not hesitate in mobilising members across the 36 states to protest, “until President Buhari reverses the decision.”
ALSO, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has threatened to crumble the nation’s economy should government contemplate increasing pump price in the foreseeable future going by the speculations making the rounds.
It maintained that the suffering Nigerians were passing through following recent increments was enough. Addressing the media yesterday in Abuja, the body’s Senate President, Comrade Chuks Innocent Okafor, warned the government against inflicting further pains on the suffering masses via incessant increase of petrol price.
“Each time there is an increase in the pump price of petroleum products, most especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the costs of transportation, food items and other essential products, materials and services skyrocket.
“This constant unprecedented increase of prices at the expense of the average Nigerian citizens, who are struggling under intense pressure to survive due to an unbearable harsh national economy, has made their lives worse,” he stated.
BESIDES, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Federal Government to scrap the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (Management) Board (PEF), and in its place, make the 21 petrol depots nationwide functional and accessible to oil marketers.
Its National Publicity Officer, Elder Ukadike Chinedu, told journalists at the weekend in Abuja that bringing the products closer to marketers would eliminate the relevance of PEF.
He spoke in the wake of government’s seeming indecisiveness to the product price that had made caused confusion among consumers. Ukadike explained that PEF’s scrapping “also entails full deregulation of the downstream sector. Before the implementation of the policy, the government should ensure that petroleum products are pumped into every nook and cranny of the nation first.”
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