Fuel Crisis: Don’t take us for a ride, NUPENG tells FG

Following speculations that price of petrol might rise to N151.87 per litre, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Lagos chapter has described the news of a looming increase in the pump price of petrol as unwelcome and worrisome. Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, the chairman of NUPENG, Lagos Zone said; “It is a bad idea to say petrol price will increase again. Nigerians will not welcome any further increase. Truly, we saw the foreign exchange crumbling on daily basis, but it shouldn’t be an excuse.” 

 He said if the government could subsidise forex for pilgrims, it should also be prepared to subsidise whatever increase that would come from any crisis the marketers might be having concerning the fuel price.  “Government should not take us for a ride because nobody is going to take it the way the marketers are thinking.



“Marketers are telling us what the government is planning to do, because on their own, they cannot just increase the price. They are only playing the script of the government and we are not going to succumb to such blackmail,”Korodo said.

Also speaking on the looming price change, the Rivers state chapter of Trade Union Congress (TUC) Mr Chika Onuegbu said the government had made it clear that the price of petrol would not be more than N145 per litre.

 “And even at that point when the government made the agreement, we knew that it was making excess profits and it admitted to that fact. So, the government should be able to cushion the impact of the forex challenge marketers are facing. 

“I think the government had an understanding with the marketers regarding the exchange rate that they will apply for importing their products. We were told that at N145, things would be easy for the marketers,”  he told REPORTER.

 Onuegbu said it would be unfair to Nigerians for the price to be increased. Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured Nigerians that it has no plans to increase fuel price. Maikanti Baru, the managing director NNPC gave the assurance in an interview with State House correspondents on Tuesday, August 9, after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.