New pump price of fuel is fraud, here is why, says PDP

The main opposition party in the country, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described the new pump price of fuel of N121.50 per litre recently announced by the federal government as a big fraud against Nigerians.

It would be recalled that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) at the weekend announced a new retail price band for oil marketers.

In a circular dated May 31st, the downstream regulator said oil marketers are now expected to sell petrol within the price range of N121.50 and N123.50.

However, in a statement by PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday, the party demanded that the price be further reduced to N70 per liter to reflect the appropriate pricing template following the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

Ologbondiyan said the N121.50 per litre announced by the FG is highly provocative, and a further display of the insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as they battle the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the current price amounts to fleecing Nigerians of over N50 per liter of fuel.

“This is in continuation of the N55 per liter overcharge, which Nigerians had borne under the inappropriate N125 per liter, which prevailed for months, before it was brought down to N123.5 per liter, in spite of the crash in international price of crude oil.

“The PDP rejects the unnecessary price pinching and demands that the Federal Government, should without further delay, implement the appropriate price as well as declare and account for the billions of naira accruable as overcharge since the crash in crude oil price.

According to him, the failure to reduce the pump price as well as the non-declaration of the overcharge is completely unacceptable to Nigerians, as it only points to questions of corruption in the system.

“The APC and its government have no justifiable reason to retain the pump price of fuel at over N70 per liter. It again challenged the APC administration to disprove Nigerians by immediately publishing the prevailing landing cost, depot cost, trucking cost as well as the retail outlet admin cost and show why the pump price should be above N70 per liter,” he said.

The party also urged the National Assembly to protect the interest of the people by using their legislative instruments to prevail on the Federal Government to implement the appropriate fuel pricing and account for the overcharges.