The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has rejected the new selling pump price of petrol per litre for N617.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, speaking during an interview said that Nigerians are being deceived on the issue of petrol pricing.
Ajaero while rejecting the new pump price of fuel further said that the masses are being punished unnecessarily.
“President Bola Tinubu’s administration is toying with Nigerians and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is only being clever by half,” the NLC president said.
“If the government withdrew subsidies of petroleum products and suddenly, while we are about to start committee meetings, there is another price increase, why then will government seek a court injunction and use other measures if it is not their business?
“It seems we have entered a reign where Nigerians are being punished unnecessarily and where lies are coming up everywhere.
“NNPCL cannot import and say the commodity is imported by marketers, that is not true,” Ajaero said.
Recent findings showed that the pump price of fuel surged to N617 per litre in the federal capital territory (FCT), Abuja and N568 in Lagos on Tuesday.
Reacting to the increase of fuel pump prices from N540/litr to N617/litr, NNPCL described the development as “market forces at play.”
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari offered the explanation after he met with the Vice President, Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to Kyari who spoke with State House Correspondents, the problem is not a shortage of supply of product, rather the forces of demand and supply in the marketing value chain was simply taking effect.
He said importers of fuel product were gaining confidence in the system, noting that prices were bound to go up or down from time to time.
“I don’t have the details this moment. But we have the marketing wing of our company. They adjust prices depending on the market realities,” Kyari said.
“This is really what is happening; this is the meaning of making sure that market regulate itself so that prices will go up and sometimes they will come down. This is what we have seen and in reality this is how the market works.”
