Panel Target Four Year Stable Fuel Prices
From Alifa Daniel Abuja
A plan that will ensure the stability of fuel prices for four years is being considered by the committee set up by the Federal Government to cushion the effects of its recent increase in the prices of petroleum products.
The Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu hinted of this plan at a meeting of the panel in Abuja, which was also attended by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Adams Oshiomhole.
And in a marked departure from the Federal Government, Mantu declared the recent strike against the increase in the price of fuel successful.
"It was successful as far as I am concerned. I was a victim of it because I couldn't get to the bank to withdraw money to do my Sallah thing. This is the truth of the matter," the lawmaker said.
He lamented the incidence of strikes at every fuel price increase, adding that the economy usually suffered, even as lives were usually lost as a result of the strikes. But he said that the last strike, though successful, did not lead to the loss of lives, like previous ones that turned violent.
Mantu was not specific on the system the committee would come up with to give a price regime that could "stand the test of time."
But he disclosed that the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency's (PPPRA) representatives on the Committee had informed the group that includes minister, civil society groups, and other stockholders in the oil sector, that if there were no controls in place, fuel should be selling at N59 per litre based on the current price of crude oil in the international market.
The Deputy Senate President wondered what would happen if fuel was sold to Nigerian at N59 when an increase to N52 shut the country down the way it did the last time.
Mantu also appealed to the press to be cautious in handling stories involving the committee, adding that recent reports that some members walked out of committee meeting were not true.
One of the members of the committee, representing the civil society who walked out of,the meeting and addressed journalists at the National Assembly, Mallam Shehu Sani, was at yesterday's meeting.
Like Oshiomhole he kept a straight face as Mantu delivered the opening statement before the committee went into a closed-door session. Sani had alleged at the last meeting that there were indications of bias in the sitting arrangement of the last meeting.
He was protesting against the attempt by the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity to set up a high table where some officials were to sit. In his summation, it was an attempt to give some government members of the committee leverage over others. In Sani's estimation, members were meant to be equal except Mantu in his capacity as chairman.
While appealing to journalists to be circumspect in the stories they published, the Deputy Senate President said: "There are different interest groups who would wish this thing to work and there are those who would not want it to work depending on which side of the divide you are. Those who are benefiting from the present situation would not want it to work. Those who are not benefiting from it would want it to work."
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