The organised labour in Nigeria has called on the federal government to urgently end the current fuel shortage as well as hike witnessing across the country.
A press statement jointly signed by Comrade Ayuba Wabba and Festus Osifo as NLC President and TUC President respectively, said government must fix the challenges rather than giving excuses.
The movement lamented that despite the huge amount of tax payers money government is using to subsidise the products, Nigerians still faced hardship accessing the products .
They however expressed their readiness to engage the government with a view to ending the current logjam .
“The labour centers demand of the Federal Government an end to the avoidable, unnecessary, crippling and pain-inducing fuel shortages and unapproved price hike of up to N240 in the country.
“The persistent shortages of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol in the country has become a source of pain to the Nigerian people.
“It has led not just to long avoidable queues, adulteration of the product by the unscrupulous elements; exploitation of the consumers, turning fuel stations to traffic menace.
“All these have tragic consequences for the Nigerian people and debilitating effects on the health of the economy which itself is not in a good state.
“We are reliably informed that the shortage is deliberately fostered by players in the downstream sector in other to hike the price far above the government approved threshold.
“It is an added problem when non-state actors begin to arrogate to themselves the power to determine the price of a liter of fuel far above the rate pegged by government in the current subsidy regime.
“The Nigerian people and tax payers currently expense several trillions of Naira annually to subsidize petrol.
“The same people cannot be exploited and made to pay over N240 per liter when the current ex-depot price is currently fixed at N 148.19k per liter.
“The opportunity cost of the subsidy payment is enormous and yet the benefit of the subsidy regime is gradually been eroded.
“No country develops when its people are subjected to perennials hardship and its industries are shackled by unnecessary chains of miseries.
“It is more disturbing that the government is equally demonstrating high level of culpability in the unwholesome situation by its silence and unwillingness to frontally and publicly address the harrowing experiences of Nigeria in the current situation because no concerned and responsive government will bury its head in the sands like the proverbial Ostrich while the citizens are being brutally exploited.
“For the records, no private individual or companies are importing a litre of PMS into this Country, all Products are imported by the government and there is no record whatsoever that the agency of government thåt is importing the products has added a kobo to the price it sells the Products to the Marketers.
“Then who is benefiting from this racketeering?” they said.
