NUPENG Flays Move To Increase Fuel Price

The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(NUPENG) has flayed the federal government alleged intention to impose a new
price regime for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol.

In a statement issued by the Union Acting Secretary General,
Comrade Isaac Aberare said the current scarcity of the product being experience
nationwide had led to a sharp increase in the price of fuel currently sells
between N110 and N140 per litre as against the official approved price of N97.

The union said the Federal Government has not done much to
address the scarcity of the product, stressing that the inability of the
government to make the product available to Nigerians could be another deviced
means to introduce deregulation of petroleum products through another means.

The Labour leader said the union held the government
responsible for the current scarcity, stressing that repairs have not been
effected at the vandalised pipelines across the nation due to the inability of
the security agencies to recover NNPC staff bodies killed along the pipelines
at Arepo Ogun State.

The NUPENG’s scribe said members of the union of the
Petroleum Tanker Drivers Unit were  at
work but have no sufficient product to load at the various depots for
distribution nationwide, stressing that the appropriate government agencies
should work in harmony to put a stop to the suffering of Nigerians by making
the product available.

Meanwhile, a source within the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) has stated inter-government agency rivalry is responsible
for the lingering fuel scarcity being experienced nationwide.

According to the source, the rivalry among NNPC officials,
government auditors and regulators especially the Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR) and Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA)
and the Nigerian Customs Service is hampering the effective and speedy
discharge of the imported fuel to ease the scarcity.