There’s Price Hike, Not Subsidy Removal On Kerosene – NLC President

Nkpogu-NLNG bridge project in Port Harcourt inspected by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, yesterday

The President of Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has expressed misgiving over the recent subsidy removal on kerosene as announced by the Federal Government, saying that government’s action should rather be regarded as price increase on Kerosene instead of subsidy removal.
“So, it is clear that it is just a price increase and what we have kept on saying is that, there is still a lot of element of corruption in the system even in pipeline and products marketing company (PPMC) itself”.
According to the NLC boss, “what we’re calling subsidy in Nigeria is actually corruption and why I say so is because if you look at the current price, Nigerians are supposed to pay less, but what they did instead is that we are new paying more due to corrupt practices. They have transferred the burden now to the larger Nigeria citizens.”
Wabba, in a recent press statement alleged that the new price increase was an agreement between the federal Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in favour of price modulation system.
“I won’t be surprised that once the price of product goes beyond $46 to the barrel, we are sure that what they would do is to adjust the price and transfer the burden to Nigerians”, he remarked describing the step as fraught with corruption.
The NLC President argued that if there is a transparent process in place, Nigerians should be paying less under the current dispensation and accused NNPC, PPMC and some oil marketers of being part of the ploy.

Chris Oluoh