Alhassan Doguwa, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, has called on the Federal Government together with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to consider the hardship Nigerians are suffering and return to the old petrol price.
News About Nigeria reports that Doguwa, the lawmaker representing Tudun Wada/Doguwa Federal Constituency, Kano State, made the appeal in a statement released on Thursday in response to the increase in the cost of petrol price to N880 per litre at the NNPCL while independent marketers sell between N950 and N970 per litre.
However, due to the scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), many have resulted in buying from black markets for as high as N1,500.
Reacting to this, Doguwa, who chairs the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), described the situation as unacceptable.
He further pledged the readiness of the committee to tackle the challenge caused by the loss of revenue to the government owing to the loss of crude.
He said, “As a committee, we urge the Nigerian government and, of course, the NNPCL to consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price. Nigerians are currently going through a lot today and adding to this burden is not in our collective best interest. Let us revert to the old pump price as soon as possible and probably intensify engagements with major stakeholders to address the problem.
“As a special committee, we will aggressively seek modalities to interface with the youths and community leaders in the oil-producing areas to address the frequent cases of crude oil theft, which is one of the reasons capable of affecting petrol supply across the country. We are working in collaboration with security agencies in their quest to secure oil pipelines and other critical facilities in the country. We believe that a return to the old pump price will calm frayed nerves, thus enabling Nigerians to go about their daily activities with ease.”
