Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) thursday rejected the April 1 tweaking of fuel price from N125 to N123.5 instead of “the appropriate N90 per litre canvassed by Nigerians.”
The party described the reduction of pump price by N1.50k as offensive, fraudulent, a further display of cruelty and insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as the country battles the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PDP in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, insisted that the correct pump price fuel is between N80 and N90 per litre given the slump in the price of fuel and crude oil in the international market.
It said any price beyond that is completely unacceptable, as it amount to fleecing Nigerians.
PDP further berated the APC administration for attempting to delude Nigerians by tweaking the cost decimals to create a misleading impression of price reduction while fleecing the unsuspecting public.
It also challenged the APC and its administration to explain how they arrived at the pump price of N123.5 instead of the appropriate price of N90 per litre despite the fall in international price.
The PDP asked the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to disprove Nigerians by immediately publishing the full prevailing landing cost, the prevailing three percent depot cost, the three percent trucking cost as well as the retail outlet admin cost and show why the pump price should be above N90 per litre.
According to the statement, “It indeed smacks of heartlessness that the APC, its leaders and cronies in the government circle are rather manipulating fuel costs at this critical time when other governments across the world are seeking ways to mitigate the economic hardship being faced by their citizens.
“Our party maintains that since Nigerians earlier had to bear the brunt of high cost of fuel in the face of high oil prices in the international market, it is only fair that they also enjoy the benefits of the cut in international price, an advantage the APC had continued to deny them.”
The PDP urged Nigerians to note how the APC and its leaders had remained silent and failed to support the demand for reduction of fuel price, a development that only points to apparent complicity in this sleazy scheme against the citizens.
The party, therefore, charges the APC and its administration to immediately reduce the pump price to the appropriate price of N90 as well as refund the accruable so far from the N35 per litre difference and channel same to provision of palliatives to Nigerians.
It said: “Our party also challenges the APC to join the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians in our persistent demand that President Buhari orders the recovery of over N14 trillion oil money stolen by APC leaders in the last four years, including the stolen N9 trillion detailed in the leaked NNPC memo, and redirect same to the welfare of Nigerians.”
Furthermore, the PDP reiterated its demand for the establishment of Eminent Nigerians Group to manage donations towards mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 and ensure that the palliatives get to vulnerable Nigerians without any political and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
