NNPC Allays Fears Of Fuel Price Hike

The pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will not be increased in January, the Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Fidel Pepple, has assured.

He gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja while speaking with newsmen, restating that the Federal Government had earmarked some money for fuel subsidy in the 2013 budget.

Pepple also announced that the vandalised Ije-Ododo and Arepo pipelines in Lagos and Ogun had been restored. “I can affirm to you that our engineers from the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Ltd. (PPMC), have finally fixed the Ije-Ododo pipeline that was ruptured last Monday by pipeline vandals.

“Going forward, the good news for Nigerians is that we have resumed pumping petroleum products through the pipeline and system 2B is equally working after the restoration of the pipeline,” he said.

Pepple assured motorists that with the restoration of the Ije-Ododo pipeline and the NNPC system 2B pipeline, normalcy had been restored in the supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country.

The general manager said that pumping of the PMS had resumed in earnest to depots and tank farms in system 2B, spanning from Atlas-Cove in Lagos to Ilorin in Kwara. He described media reports that fuel scarcity and queues in some parts of the country might last beyond the New Year as “mischievous and misleading”.

Pepple said that the NNPC was working hard to check fuel scarcity and eliminate queues at filling stations across the country. He attributed the long queues at filling stations to the activities of vandals and the closure of some filling stations, due to the Christmas holidays.

The spokesman said that the company had product sufficiency that could sustain the country for more than a month. He said the NNPC was working hard to supply PMS so as to ease the hardship of motorists before and after the New Year.

Pepple appealed to independent marketers to stop diverting petroleum products to the black market, saying that sanctions would be meted out to culprits.

The general manager stressed the need for marketers to team up with the NNPC in ensuring steady supply and distribution of petroleum products.

He also called on motorists to desist from panic buying and hoarding as the NNPC was doing its utmost to restore normalcy in the supply and distribution chain.

Meanwhile, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Lagos State branch on Sunday urged the Federal Government not to contemplate any increase in the pump price of petrol to save Nigerians from more hardship.

Addressing a news conference on the “Economic, Social and Political Progress of the Nigerian Nation in the Last 12 months”, CLO Chairman, Mr Ehi Omokhuale, said that any increase would have a devastating effect on the masses.

“We advise the Federal Government not to contemplate increasing fuel pump prices in the face of the present hardship in the land.

“At this point in the nation’s history, care must be taken to avoid any policy that may ignite an uprising.

“The national protest against the removal of fuel subsidy on January 1, must not be allowed to happen again as it may become very disastrous,” he said.

The CLO chairman noted that there was not much improvement in the welfare of the people across all the states in the country in 2012. He said that attempts at urbanising some states and ridding them of criminals who used commercial motorcycles to operate led to mass unemployment.

Omokhuale, however, lauded governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State for improving the level of infrastructure in their areas.

He said that they stood out because of the deliberate attempts they made to change the situation in their states.

The CLO chairman, however, decried incidents of multiple and uneven taxation, which he claimed, prevailed in Lagos and Edo states.

“This multiple taxation has driven many Nigerians and some companies in these states to neighbouring countries,” he said.

He advised Nigerian leaders at all levels to use the nation’s resources judiciously and not for selfish ends.

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) greets Children after a church service at the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (a.k.a EYN), Utako District in Abuja, yesterday.