Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has appealed to President Bola Tunubu to urgently intervene in the high cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas in the country.
Oyintiloye, who made the appeal while speaking with journalists yesterday in Osogbo, said the cost of the cooking gas was becoming unbearable for the masses.
The APC chieftain said although the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, on February 22 announced that the federal government had asked LPG producers to stop exporting the commodity, but the decision had not yielded any positive results in the reduction of price of the item locally.
He said rising prices of the item might be as a result of LPG producers secretly exporting the products.
Oyintiloye, a former member of defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said it was alarming that the cost of refiling a 12.5kg of cylinder in many part of the country now ranges between N17,500 and N18,000.
He said as a result of this exorbitant prices, many LPG users, who could not afford the price were gradually shifting to solid fuel like charcoal and firewood.
Oyintiloye said the shift to the use of charcoal and firewood by the masses could aggravate climate change challenges and its adverse effects such as deforestation, desertification, and soil degradation that could lead to erosion.
According to him, the use of solid fuel can also lead to air pollution with carbon monoxide emitted from solid fuel, which is harmful to human beings because it binds to hemoglobin in the blood, reducing the ability of blood to carry oxygen to the body’s organs.
“This will in turn pose serious danger to the respiratory organ, fatigue, headaches, confusion, and dizziness to human system due to inadequate oxygen delivery to the brain, thereby reduces overall well-being of people,” he stated.
Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker, however, urged the president to take drastic measures to crash the price of the product in the interest of the masses and to save the country’s forest and ecosystem.
He said that while many Nigerians were struggling to look for what to eat, the means of cooking their food should not be made difficult for them again.
He appealed to Nigerians to continue to support the president “as he is working tirelessly to deliver on his Renewed Hope Agenda.”
