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Chaos as fuel price hits N53
NIGERIANS woke up yesterday to find a new price regime for petroleum products and a return of queues at filling stations.
In Lagos and its environs, a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol was sold for N52.50, while Automative Gas Oil (AGO) or diesel and household kerosene went for N62 and N60.
At Total in Abuja, petrol went for N54.50 up from N45.50, while Oando raised it to N54 from N45.50. At AP stations, petrol was sold for N54 against the previous price of N45. Some independent marketers sold it for N56, while it was N55.80 at other stations.
The Guardian learnt that the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC) passed a directive to that effect to the marketers on Wednesday night.
Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu after a meeting of the National Economic Council in Abuja yesterday, insisted that fuel tax is illegal and outside the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
NLC President Adams Oshiomhole yesterday expressed his readiness to lead a battle against the fuel price increases if the body's affiliate unions ask him to.
Justice Roseline Ukeje of the Federal High court, Abuja, on Tuesday declared the office of the NLC president illegal. She also held that the workers' umbrella body have no right to compel their members to embark on strike.
Oshiomhole, in an interview with The Guardian last night said: " My position will be as dictated by the Nigerian workers through the NLC affiliates, that is the 29 affiliate unions. We have called a meeting of the NLC's highest decision making organ, its national executive council for Monday. Whatever they decide, I will carry out."
He added: "Justice Ukeje's judgment was just designed to intimidate and silence us. But I can confirm that we will not be intimidated. We take our orders from the Nigerian workers and the Nigerian masses. We will carry out their orders in toto, and without fears."
Oshiomhole spoke further: "We have written up to two letters to President Obasanjo calling for a platform of stakeholders to discuss these issues and the government clearly has shut the door to dialogue and refused even to acknowledge our letters calling for a meeting before now on this issue of petroleum product prices and the crisis of deregulation."
Also, activist lawyer and politician, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi (SAN) described the new prices as "socially criminal, economically inexplicable and politically wicked and anti-people."
According to Fawehinmi, the new price regime was effected by President Olusegun Obasanjo "in the wake of a crippling Labour bill, and obviously unjust and indeed a ridiculous decision of the Federal High Court."
The PPMC, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), had increased the depot price of petrol to N44.50 per litre against the old price of N34.50 per litre.
The ex-depot price for diesel was raised to N43.50 per litre against the former price of N33.50 per litre while marketers will now buy Kerosene at N42.50 per litre from NNPC depot as against N32.50 a litre sold early this week.
A statement by the chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, on Tuesday night in Abuja had confirmed the development. It said that marketers were now free to procure products and release them to the public subject to the guidelines contained in the various templates that had been recently considered.
The statement noted that the ex-depot prices of NNPC would now be market-determined.
Gbadamosi said: "The secretariat of the PPPRA welcomes the Federal High Court decision of 21st September, 2004 whereby the impediments placed on cost recovery of petroleum products have now been vacated. Therefore, the full effect of 29th September, 2003 instructions to marketers on full deregulation can now be realised."
He however, warned the marketers to refrain from profiteering, declaring that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) would continue to monitor and enforce prices that justified decent returns on their investments.
Most petrol stations yesterday in Lagos did not sell fuel thereby creating long queues at the stations, while others that opened their station were selling at the new price.
At the Total filling station along Lagos Road in Ikorodu, petrol was sold at N52.50 per litre while a Conoil station at Onipanu sold for N53 to anxious motorists.
At the Oando petrol station in Anthony and Apapa areas of the state, attendants were selling the product at the new price. Most Texaco stations, however, closed shops to motorists except the one located at Palm Groove bus stop, which sold it for N52.50 per litre.
A chief executive of one of the oil companies, said that loading was being carried out at all the depots with increase in laden ticketing.
He said: "We have directed our men at the stations to adjust their pumps to reflect the new price level. We also told them to observe customers' reactions and if the atmosphere is not conducive enough, they should discontinue sale."
Tinubu said that the imposition of a fuel tax would be over-burdening Nigerians who had had to bear the brunt of past fuel price increases. The governor added that fuel tax, which is a consumption tax, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
He said: "It is unconstitutional. They can't do that. The court did not dispose of the fuel tax. There was no fuel price tax before the court and the pronouncement of the court is not exactly. And you can not overburden the public with increases again.
"It is a residual tax matter. That is the exclusive area of the states. It is a consumption tax. It is not different from a Cocacola kiosk tax. It can't be taxed by the Federal Government or any federal institution. It is only the states that can levy such tax. If there must be tax, it is the state where it is affected that has the right to do that."
The chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mosimi branch, Mr. Femi George, described the increase as astronomical.
George admitted that an increase in fuel prices was expected, adding, however, that the level declared is too steep.
He condemned a situation where the government and those responsible for the management of petroleum products to continue to use import parity as yardstick for the determination of the prices of domestic fuel.
George said: "The magnitude of the increase is too high, the new price does not look realistic, the government should rather look into the problem of the exchange rate instead of increasing the prices to further impoverish the masses".
The PPPRA Executive Secretary, Dr. Oluwole Oluleye had on Wednesday in Abuja said that the agency was looking at price range of between N50 and N52 per litre for petrol.
Meanwhile, in Ilorin, Kwara State Capital yesterday, there were long queues at the filling stations following the increase in the prices of petroleum products.
The situation was serious in the afternoon when more than one third of the station visited by The Guardian shut out customers and conspicuously hanged at their gates, "no fuel" notice.
Sources said the earlier hardship experienced by the motorists could not be divorced from the need for the PMS dealers to adjust the pump price.
At around 3.30 p.m., the scarcity occasioned by hoarding subsided as the initial queue reduced, but with a litre of fuel selling for N50.
Despite the hike, commercial drivers and motor bikes' owners did not increase the fares as taxi drivers still charged N20 for a reasonable distance within the state capital.
But the immediate effect was more at the permanent site of the University of Ilorin, as many vehicle owners plying the route went into panic buying, which made many students to be stranded.
The Depot Chief at Oke-Oyi, on the outskirts of Ilorin, Mr. Obiora Okeke when contacted, declined comments on the development, citing official clearance from the NNPC secretariat.
Also in Kaduna metropolis, long fuel queues suddenly became common place in the city.
The stations visited by The Guardian, such as Mobil, Total and Oando Plc, on Ahmadu Bello Way, witnessed several motorists on queue to buy fuel in anticipation of pump price increase.
However, some filling stations yesterday still sold fuel at N46.50 per litre even as the queues got longer.
An official of AP filling station in the city who spoke under the condition of anonymity said: "We are still expecting our consignment of petrol and I cannot tell you if there will be an adjustment in our pump price any moment from now.
"We are just hearing, just like you that they are going to ask us to adjust the pump price, but we have not received official confirmation. When we receive such directive, we shall act accordingly", he added.
Already, commercial vehicles plying major areas in the metropolis have increased their fares by 50 per cent.
In an interview with one of the bus drivers (name withheld) who plys between Kasuwa and Karo, the increase in transport fare was informed by the difficulties in buying fuel.
He added: "Oga, from today, we are now charging N30 per drop of any bus stop instead of N20. And we heard that the price of petrol would soon go up.
"It is ironic that while the Federal Government has raked in an excess oil windfall of more than N400 billion in the last three months from the sale of crude oil abroad, Nigerians at home are being squeezed out of existence for the profit we have made abroad. This is socially criminal, economically inexplicable and politically wicked and anti-people", Fawehinmi said.
He urged the citizens to reject "unending and unjustifiable prices in petroleum products," arguing that the country's poverty crisis is already debilitating. He said: "This latest anti people increase will worsen and exacerbate the socio-economic problems of our people."
He added: "General Olusegun Obasanjo's regime has proved beyond all shreds of doubts that all his economic policies, which are now encapsulated in the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) can best be described as National Economic Enslavement and Dehumanising Strategy to destroy the mass of our people for the upliftment of a new corruptly rich Nigerians", Fawehinmi said.`
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