PMS price: PDP rejects N123.5 price tweak, insists on N90 per litre

…Accuses APC of manipulating prices, fleecing Nigerians

By Dirisu Yakubu

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected the new N123.50k pump price of fuel and tasked the federal government to settle for no more than N90 per litre.

This is even as the party described the reduction of pump price by N1.50k as “offensive and fraudulent; a further display of cruelty and insensitivity of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as the nation battles the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In a reaction contained in a statement signed by the spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday, the  PDP insisted that the appropriate price should be “between N80 to N90 given the slump in the price of crude at the international market,” adding that “any price beyond that, is completely unacceptable, as it amounts to fleecing Nigerians.”

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The statement also chided the APC-led administration for allegedly attempting to delude Nigerians “by tweaking the cost decimals to create a misleading impression of price reduction while fleecing the unsuspecting public.”

The statement further read: “The PDP challenges the APC and its administration to explain how they arrived at the pump price of N123.5 instead of the appropriate price of N90 per litre despite the fall in international price.

“The PDP asks the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to disprove Nigerians by immediately publishing the full prevailing landing cost, the prevailing 3 per cent depot cost, the 3 per cent trucking cost as well as the retail outlet administrative cost and show why the pump price should be above N90 per litre.

“It indeed smacks of heartlessness that the APC, its leaders and cronies in government circle are rather manipulating fuel costs at this critical time when other governments across the world are seeking ways to mitigate the economic hardship being faced by their citizens.

“Our party maintains that since Nigerians earlier had to bear the brunt of the high cost of fuel in the face of high oil prices in the international market,  it is only fair that they also enjoy the benefits of the cut in international prices; an advantage the APC had continued to deny them.

“The PDP invites Nigerians to note how the APC and its leaders had remained silent and failed to support the demand for reduction of fuel price; a development that only points to apparent complicity in this sleazy scheme against our citizens.

“The PDP, therefore, charges the APC and its administration to immediately reduce the pump price to the appropriate price of N90 as well as refund the accruable, so far, from the N35 per litre difference and channel same to the provision of palliatives to Nigerians.

“Our party also challenges the APC to join the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians in our persistent demand that President Buhari orders the recovery of over N14 trillion oil money stolen by APC leaders in the last four years including the stolen N9 trillion detailed in the leaked NNPC memo, and redirect same to the welfare of Nigerians.

“Furthermore, the PDP reiterates its demand for the establishment of Eminent Nigerians Group to manage  donations towards mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and  ensure that the palliatives get to venerable Nigerians without any political and bureaucratic bottlenecks.”

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