Labour leaders raises alarm over govt plan to increase fuel price to N140

The Nigeria Labour Congress [NLC] has raised alarm over federal government and Oil Marketers to increase the petrol price from N97 to N140.

It will be recalled that at early January this year, the NLC embarked on a successful nationwide strike which lasted for a week following the removal of oil subsidy by federal govenrment.

The Labour leaders said the government was contriving with the oil marketers to push fuel price to N140, under the guise of scarcity.

The NLC, in a statement issued yesterday, described the move as unacceptable, adding that the current artificial fuel scarcity in parts of the country was to blackmail Nigerians into accepting higher fuel prices.

“It is unacceptable to the NLC that marketers and the government will contrive to push the price of a litre of petrol (PMS) back to N140 under the guise of fuel scarcity,” the NLC, in a statement signed by its acting general secretary, Owei Lakemfa, said.

The NLC also described as ridiculous, the claim by the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) that the probe into the oil sector by the National Assembly had created “uncertainties” and loss of confidence by the financial institutions, which had translated into fuel scarcity, as ridiculous.

Lakemfa said the fuel scarcity was part of the schemes to put pressure on the National Assembly to discontinue the probe.

The union said the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration must live up to its promise that Nigerians would reap the dividends of the fuel price hike, adding that Nigerians were not interested in excuses