Brace Up For Petrol Scarcity; Subsidy Is Back- Marketers

Independent petrol marketers in the country have described the claim by the NNPCL to the effect that the federal government is not paying subsidy as false.

They urge Nigerians to prepare for another round of scarcity of the commodity as the current price cannot be sustained due to the rising cost of crude oil in the international market, and the devaluation of the naira.

The marketers said on Tuesday that the price of petrol should not be less than N800 per litre rather than the N580 that’s being sold currently at filling stations.

Recall that the Group Managing Director of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja refuted suggestions that the federal government has started paying subsidy to marketers

“No subsidy whatsoever. We are recovering our full cost from the products that we import. We sell to the market, and we understand why the marketers are unable to import. We hope that they do it very quickly and these are some of the interventions the government is doing. There is no subsidy,” Kyari had stated,” the NNPCL boss told journalists after meeting with the president.

But marketers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria said yesterday that the price of petrol should not be less than N800/litre if there was no subsidy on the commodity.

The National Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, John Kekeocha, blasted the federal government for deceiving Nigerians by claiming that subsidy has not returned, he said billions of naira is currently being paid to subsidise the commodity in order for Nigerians not to pay for more than N620 per litre that’s being sold.

He stated: “I don’t know why the government keeps peddling lies. When they removed the PMS subsidy, a dollar was about N700 and they made us believe that the removal of subsidy would make the supply of products play according to the dictates of demand and supply, looking at forex as the benchmark.

“Now, this is just simple arithmetic, if you removed the subsidy when a dollar was about N700 and today the dollar is more than N1,000, and you are still supplying and giving products at almost the same rate, what is the magic? They are subsidising products as we speak.

“They are spending billions of naira to subsidise products, and because they know that this country may go on fire if Nigerians buy products at about N1, 000/litre, they keep twisting facts. Why can’t they come out and tell the world the truth.

He urged Nigerians to brace up for the scarcity of the product soon, because “in a very short time there will be no product anywhere in this country, apart from the tank farms that have access to diesel.”