Developing Story: NNPC Denies Plan To Hike PMS Price
By Elem Kash
The retail outlet of the NNPC which handles the sale of petroleum products has denied moves to increase the price of PMS.
The organisation said in a statement uploaded on its official handle on X that fuel prices at its retail outlets across the country will remain unchanged.
X is the new brand name for Twitter which has been bought by Elon Musk.
NNPC Retail denied speculations that it has completed plans to adjust fuel pump prices.
The social media has been awash of late with reports suggesting that filling stations have adjusted prices to about N800 per litre.
No doubt, IPMAN’s statement that its members will drive up the price of PMS may have fueled the speculation.
IPMAN which appears to be obsessed with the ongoing reference in official quarters to market forces said the current landing cost of the product at the ports is eating deep into the pockets of their members who have witnessed two fuel price increases in a row under the Tinubu administration.
In Abuja, labour screamed. It warned on Monday that it would proceed on strike if petrol prices are jerked up a third time.
Joe Ajaero who heads the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said workers would not issue any notice before downing tools.
About midnight Monday, NNPC Retail issued a statement on its site saying that prices at its varous outlets would remain stable.
“We do not have the intention to increase our PMS pump prices as widely speculated”, NNPC Retail announced.
“Please buy the best quality products at the most affordable prices at our NNPC Retail Stations nationwide”, the company stated.
It was a good move, analysts who have seen the statement said, but what is not clear at the moment is if independent marketers will take a cue from the NNPC to avert the transfer of additional costs to Nigerians who feel soffocated by excessive increases recorded in the price of the product.
The Port Harcourt Telegraph Monday morning went round some filling stations in Port Harcourt, the Rivers capital.
<span;>The paper reports that filling stations were still selling at the old price.
Eterna Filling Station along Ordinance Road in Trans Amadi was selling a litre of fuel at about N500 when the Telegraph visited.
Some of the other retail stations owned by other independent marketers had not changed the pump price, our investigation showed.
But one female attendant told this publication, “We Don hear say dem dey plan to jack up price, but oga dem for up neva tell us to change ooo.”
Many Nigerians who were enthusiastic after fuel subsidy was removed are gradually making u-turns.
They think President Bola Tinubu and his associates are not either doing enough to protect them or are hasty in some of the decisions that being made.
“Shylocks are busy exploiting the situation. The Tinubu administration should not allow the exploitation of the people under the guise of market forces”, a motorist who gave his simply gave his name as Mike told our reporter.
He said there was no way to justify the adjustment of fuel prices three times under three months.
“It is sending dangerous signals that our leaders don’t care”, a mother who drove her car to a filling station along Aba Road, carrying three kids in the back seat remarked.
Angered by an injunction which it says is hanging around the neck of its leaders, labour insists there is an attempt to muzzle unions.
For years, Nigeria’s Constitution has guaranteed the right of protest.
The right of Nigerians to protest are firmly safeguarded under sections 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution.
Ajaero vowed that labour would not be detered by attempts by Federal authorities to use the courts to stop it from exploiting openings in the law which allows workers to go on strike.
All eyes are now turned in the direction of the nation’s independent marketers who have flown a kite indicating that another fuel price hike may be around the corner.
Will they blink and shelve the idea of a plan that is obviously drawing the ire of ordinary Nigerians?
No one is sure as anger seemingly spreads throughout the land.
“There is a limit to the burden Nigerians are bearing. It is getting too much. Tinubu should try and intervene on the side of the Nigerian people”, an analyst who did not want his name in print added.