The Nigerian Labor Congress and the Trade Union Congress have implored the Federal Government to intervene and end the incessant fuel scarcity across the country
The TUC President, Mr. Festus Osifo and his NLC counterpart, Ayuba Wabba, made the call in a joint statement on Saturday.
They said the lack of fuel supply, price increases, and unnecessarily long queues at petrol stations are no longer acceptable.
The country’s unapproved price hike of up to N240 per liter of petrol, according to the labor leaders, should be stopped. They added thT fuel shortages are avoidable, unnecessary, crippling, and painful.
The statement reads, “The persistent shortage of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise called petrol in the country has become a source of pain to the Nigerian people. It has led not just to long avoidable queues, adulteration of the product by the unscrupulous elements, exploitation of the consumers, turning fuel stations to traffic menace.
“All these have tragic consequences for the Nigerian people and debilitating effects on the health of the economy which itself is not in a good state.
“We are reliably informed that the shortage is deliberately fostered by players in the downstream sector in other to hike the price far above the government-approved threshold. It is an added problem when non-state actors begin to arrogate to themselves the power to determine the price of a litre of fuel far above the rate pegged by the government in the current subsidy regime
“The Nigerian people and taxpayers currently expense several trillions of Naira annually to subsidize petrol.”
The NLC added that when the current ex-depot price is set at Nl 48.19k per litre, the same people cannot be taken advantage of and forced to pay more than N240 per litre. The value of the subsidy regime is gradually being diminished notwithstanding the large opportunity cost of the subsidy payment.
“No country thrives when its citizens endure constant pain and when its economies are restrained by needless chains of misery,” the statement added.
