Fayose Accuses FG of Planning to Increase Fuel Price through the Back Door

Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

Despite the assertion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that the pump price of petroleum would not be increased, the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has accused the All Progressives Congress-led federal government of deliberately using fuel scarcity to bully Nigerians into accepting increase in pump price.

The governor said that though the federal government intends to increase the pump price, but it didn’t know how to go about it.

Fayose, who stated this Monday while supervising the sales of the state
government assisted petrol at N145 a litre to the people at the Alade filling station along Iyin road, Ado-Ekiti, said that he decided to sell government petrol to people at control price so as to alleviate their
suffering.

He said: “This is the sacrifice we have to make as a responsible government to alleviate the suffering of the people, because this is a black Christmas. They can’t move.

“It is time for Nigerians to take me seriously that the federal government wants to increase the pump price. Ordinarily, the N145 is too much for the people not to talk of increasing it. Today I tell you that there is queue even at black market.

“This also is why I decided not to be part of the $1 billion Boko Haram funds because our needs vary. Not until Nigeria is run like a federation, we will only be wasting our time. People must decide the way forward for Nigeria.

“I have said it before that 2019 is an opportunity for Nigerians to make a choice, either to change the change or to continue this suffering.”

However, some motorists including Mr Tope Joshua, Dr Kuku and Babalola Adeleye who bought fuel from the government assisted petrol sales lauded the governor for being sensitive to the plight of the people.

They condemned the federal government for not making fuel available and for passing the bulk of their alleged failure to the marketers.

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