Shettima summons Lokpobiri, Kyari, Ribadu over petrol price hike

Vice President Kashim Shettima has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari.

Also summoned on Thursday at the Presidential Villa is the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu over the recent hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol.

The Vice President is meeting with the trio in his office at the State House, Abuja.

NNPCL on Tuesday increased the pump price of petrol from ₦568 to ₦855, ₦897 (depending on the location per litre) amid lingering fuel scarcity and the country’s crisis.

Private suppliers already sold fuel at higher prices than the NNPCL. Some were selling at 1,200 naira per litre on Wednesday.

The price increase came a day after NNPC acknowledged it was struggling to maintain fuel supplies because of financial difficulties.

In Lagos, Abuja and the northern city of Kano on Wednesday, some private petrol stations were closed while huge lines of cars waited overnight outside NNPC fuel stations.

Several Nigerians and groups have condemned the NNPCL’s hike in fuel prices amid the hardship and economic realities the citizens face.

Among them is the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), arguing that the increment would compound the misery of Nigerians.

NLC President, Joe Ajaero, condemned the fuel price hike and accused the government of betraying the labour movement.

He demanded an immediate reversal in the price of petrol.

“We demand the immediate reversal of the latest increase in the pump of PMS across the country, release of all those incarcerated or being prosecuted on the assumption of having participated in the recent protests,” Ajaero said.

“End to policies that engender hunger and insecurity, halt to government’s culture of terror, fear and lying. We are guided by our belief in our country and the need to secure and sustain its sovereignty, integrity and welfare of the people.

“Halt the indiscriminate arrest and detention of citizens on trumped up charges, reversal of the 250% tariff hike in electricity, stop to the hijack of the duties of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.”

Nigeria is a major oil producer but relies on petrol imports because it has little refining capacity and often sees sporadic fuel shortages.

Presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga, defended the decision to raise fuel prices to help the NNPCL, which he said was struggling to make its contribution to federal accounts.

He said on X that the long-awaited beginning of petrol production for the local market at the Dangote refinery, Africa’s largest, would bring relief to the economy.

“There are no easy choices,” Onanuga said. “Something must be done to make NNPC survive, keep the engines of government running and petrol flowing.”

Since coming to office a year and a half ago, Tinubu has promised an agenda he named “Renewed Hope”, implementing reforms officials say in the long run will stabilise the economy and attract investment.

He ended a fuel subsidy that cost the government billions of dollars a year to keep petrol prices artificially low and also liberalised the naira.

Officials have repeatedly urged Nigerians to be patient for the reforms to have an effect, but inflation reached a three-decade high of 34 percent in June.

While consumer prices slowed slightly in July, food inflation was still a stubborn 39.5 percent.

In July, the government more than doubled the minimum wage for public sector workers to 70,000 naira a month, in one of several measures introduced to help offset the cost of living.

But already on Wednesday, transport and food prices were seeing the impact of the new fuel increase.