In a similar development, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) will on May 12th and 13th deliberate on the new pump price announced by Federal Government.
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The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, announced the policy change in Abuja on Wednesday afternoon.
“In order to increase and stabilise the supply of the product, any Nigerian entity is now free to import the product subject to existing quality specifications and other guidelines issued by Regulatory Agencies”.
The agency responsible for regulating petroleum prices in the oil sector, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has revealed why marketers were allowed to fix the price within the new price band of N145, explaining that it was because of extreme difficulties faced by importers in sourcing foreign exchange, forex.
He said the meeting also noted that the main reason for the current problem “is the inability of importers of petroleum products to source foreign exchange at the official rate”.
We share the pains of Nigerians but, as we have constantly said, the inherited difficulties of the past and the challenges of the current times imply that we must take hard decisions on these sorts of critical national issues.
It said: “The unilateral increase in prices of petroleum products today by government represents the height of insensitivity and impunity and shall be resisted by the NLC and its civil society allies”.
Nigerians groaned on Wednesday, May 11, after the announcement of the fuel subsidy removal which means fuel will now sell for N145/litre as against the initial N86.50.
The marketers declined to speak to us on camera, but one of them insisted that he bought the product at a higher price and could not sell at the former price.
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He said that the Congress had scheduled an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee for Friday. Look at the economic situation, workers and Nigerians can not afford it. “At MOMAN, we support full deregulation”, Olawore said.
