NLC demands reversal of fuel price, electricity tariff hike 

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday rejected the fuel price of N143.8 announced by the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

In a statement issued by its president, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC demanded the reversal of the pump price to the old price, saying the prices of crude oil in the international market had only slightly increased from the previous price before the downward review was announced in May.

He described the hike in the fuel pump price and the proposed electricity tariff hike as “potent threat to run millions of Nigerians under.”

The PPPRA had on Wednesday announced a new price band for petrol.

In a circular dated July 1, 2020, and forwarded to oil marketers, the agency unveiled a new price regime and increased the fuel pump price from N121.50 to N143.80.

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Wabba asked the Federal Government to rehabilitate the refineries and disclose the timelines for the exercise.

He chided the PPPRA Executive Secretary, Saidu Abdulkadir, for the hike in fuel price, saying “he did not even feign pretence that government has abdicated its responsibility to protect Nigerians from the cut-throat tendencies of neo-liberal market forces.”

“Nigerians would recall that the last downward review in the price of petrol was at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. The economic benefits of the so-called ‘downward’ review were hardly enjoyed by ordinary Nigerians who were mostly indoors.

“Just as the lockdown is being eased out and as soon as the interstate travel ban was lifted, the government decided to hike the petrol price. Nigerian people and workers are forced to interpret this move as grand mischief and deceit,” the NLC president added.

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