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Marketers dare court: ‘We won’t sell petrol at N38’
•NLC starts picketing
SOPURUCHI ONWUKA, Lagos, CAJETAN MMUTA,
Asaba and KOLA ADEPOJU, Abeokuta
AS the
contention over fuel price lingers, major oil marketers opened up weekend
declaring that they are not bound by the ruling of the Federal High Court which
ordered a reversion to the old prices and possible jail term for defaulters.
The marketers said the old prices so
ordered do not concern them as they were not party to the said legal tussle
during which the ruling was given.
But the Delta State council of Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) will today begin picketing stations selling above N38 per
litre petrol.
Government had dragged the Nigeria Labour
Congress (NLC) to court seeking to halt it from calling out workers to embark on
nationwide strike over higher fuel prices.
But, the court ruled that government must
revert to the April 2004 prices of fuel and ordered the NLC not to go on strike.
The marketers’ position which was
disclosed exclusively to Daily Champion by the chairman of the committee of
major marketers, Mr. Wale Tinubu, coincided with a declaration by the Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that the marketers had so far not
defied the court ruling.
In Delta State, workers said they would
picket filling stations which sold petrol above N38 a litre from today.
Mr. Tinubu, who is the managing director
of Oando Nigeria Plc, insisted that the marketers were not bothered by the court
ruling or threat of jail.
Mr. Tinubu, a lawyer, explained by the
ruling delivered by Justice Rose Ukeje and reinforced by her last week with a
threat to jail defaulters, was issued to the parties in the case and was not
directed at them (marketers).
Another member of the committee told Daily
Champion that further reduction in prices would only come from the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) through increased subsidy, saying it would
not be reasonable to force a private operator in a liberalised market to sell
his products below cost price.
An assistant director in the Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR) also told Daily Champion on phone that the industry
regulator would not seal any station selling within the price band acceptable to
the PPPRA, that is N38 - N43 per litre.
He stated that DPR was primarily concerned
with maintaining best practices and industry standards, but does not have the
authority to enforce court injunctions.
But the executive secretary of PPPRA, Dr.
Oluwole Oluleye told Daily Champion in Port Harcourt on Friday that the
marketers had reverted to the status quo ante as directed by the court.
Dr. Oluleye blamed the continued flogging
of the price issue on media reports which he faulted as uninformed.
He said government had issued a directive
to the marketers to revert prices to status quo ante which he interpreted to be
a price band of N38 - 43 per litre of petrol.
He added that both the PPPRA and the NLC
have not disagreed on the prevailing pump price band and called on the media to
be more accurate in reporting sensitive national issues.
The Delta State council noted that despite
the Federal High Court order and the consequent directive by the Federal
Government to fuel marketers to revert to selling at the old prices, dealers in
the state still defy by selling petrol at between N38 and N43 per litre.
Kerosine price, it noted, had shot up to
N1,000 for 10 litres.
Consequently, the council raised a special
committee, at the weekend, to picket the filling stations which had failed to
comply with the ruling.
Addressing members of the committee at the
NLC secretariat complex in Asaba, the chairman, Mr. Mike Okeme frowned at the
flagrant disobedience of the marketers of the court order to revert to the old
prices and their insensitivity to calls to sell at the approved rates.
Okeme accused the marketers of massive
cheating by adjusting their pumps’ meter readings.
The chairman noted that despite the recent
order to revert to N38 per litre of petrol and the directive by the Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) that marketers should reduce prices,
dealers have continued to defy same.
While condemning the outrageous hike Okeme
described some of the dealers as "rich fools" acquiring wealth while the
ordinary people bore the brunt of the price increase, pointing out that the
Petroleum Monitoring Committee had the backing of the NLC executive at the both
national and state levels as well as the support of the people to enforce the
rule of law, fight greed and selfishness through picketing of the filling
stations in the state.
"Your responsibility is to ensure
effective picketing of all the filling stations. You have the backing of Labour,
you have the backing of the people of this country and the state to effectively
confront any person who is against the masses, who is cheating Nigerians, who is
making life difficult for Nigerians, who wants to eat alone and make others to
die.
"You are ambassadors of labour. Do your
best to make sure that people have hope in you. We fought for democracy. We
cannot afford to lose it to people who we regard as tyrants in power, people who
do not mean well for this country," he said.
Okeme lambasted the advocates of the
controversial anti-labour bill aimed at breaking up the NLC, saying they were
full of evil antics.
Responding on behalf of the committee, the
chairman, Mr. Iyeke promised that they would live up to expectation.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum and Natural Gas
Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), weekend revisited the ongoing
deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry and called on
government to review its policy in the interest of the people.
Deputy national president Mr. Babatunde
Ogun condemned the deregulation, saying it has no human face.
Presenting a paper titled: "Deregulation
of the Downstream Oil Sector: Its effect
on the Nation’s Economy" a the 2004
Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta Alumni lecture, the labour leader
said deregulation was plunging the nation into further degradation instead of
salvaging it.
He wondered why "should the local
refineries not be given concessionary rates, but asked to pay international rate
for crude obtained locally, for local production and local market?"
Ogun frowned at the system of price
deregulation "that undermines local production but only entrenches "the cartel
importers of products, chemicals and spare parts, and foster the influence of
the middleman/peddlers of petroleum products.
He stressed that this and many more served
as odds in the deregulation policy.
Ogun, therefore, urged government to
review the policy such that "a given proportion of our crude oil production is
refined locally, or sold at a determined (concessionary) rate to local refinery
as incentive to support local production and to modulate prices."
He also stressed the need for any major
marketer with up to 10 per cent market share to buy into the strategic
partnering and ownership of the existing refineries that are slated for
privatisation.
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