Since May 2023, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has increased the pump prices of petrol from ₦184 in Lagos to ₦998. The price per litre of petrol was around ₦450 in Lagos as of June 2023.
On Thursday, the TUC leader harped on the availability, affordability and accessibility of petrol for all Nigerians, saying that the commodity is essential for all Nigerian households, even those without a second-hand value car.
The trade union placed its demands along the lines of affordability, availability and accessibility, saying, “We want the Federal Government to, through Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), give all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery.”
Osifo said the NNPCL should source refined petrol from other places if the Dangote Refinery cannot meet the current daily demands of Nigerians.
“If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.
“So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability,” the TUC boss stated.
Nigerians woke up to another shocker on Wednesday morning when NNPC retail outlets adjusted the pump price of petrol in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
In Lagos, our correspondent observed that many NNPCL outlets sold a litre of the essential commodity for ₦998, about ₦150 higher than the initial price of ₦855. The sudden increase set motorists and transporters in panic-buying mode as snake-like queues have besieged filling stations.
Many filling stations not owned by the NNPCL immediately followed suit as they also incrementally adjusted their pump prices, with many selling as high as ₦1050 in many parts of Lagos.
In Abuja, the situation was not anyway different as NNPCL retail outlets hiked the price of the essential commodity from ₦897 to ₦1,030.
The fresh increase followed the September 2, 2024 increase by the NNPCL. The retail company had hiked the price per litre of petrol from ₦568 to ₦855, sparking outrage.
Though there has not been any official statement from the NNPCL on the latest increase in petrol prices, the NNPCL hinted at a fresh price increase when it began loading its first batch of petrol from the Dangote Refinery in mid-September.
