The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has implored Federal Government to take urgent measures to end current fuel scarcity in different parts of the country.
Making the appeal in a statement at the weekend, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, lamented that it was unfortunate that the people experience untold suffering and hardship looking for fuel in spite of the fact that Nigeria is an oil producing country.
“NLC is outraged by continuing fuel scarcity resulting in skyrocketing prices and long queues at filling stations in different parts of the country. It is unfortunate that the situation has not improved after more than 72 hours assurances from government and its regulatory agencies that the situation will improve, and that Nigerians need not to go into panic buying,” Wabba stated.
While accusing marketers and some groups of holding the country hostage over the years, he added that it was unacceptable that Nigerians are forced to go through perennial fuel shortage hardship especially towards the end of every year.
“It is unacceptable to us that Nigerians are being forced to cough out between N150 – N300 per litre for fuel instead of the official price of N87 per litre. This to us showed a clear determination by some unpatriotic operators in the petroleum industry to circumvent government regulation through blackmail and other unorthodox methods,” he stated.
While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for opposing removal of subsidy, the NLC leader believed the ongoing fuel scarcity was a deliberate strategy by the cabal in the oil industry to force the hands of government to remove subsidy and thereby work against the interest of the masses.
Calling on government, through the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, to impose sanctions on hoarders of fuel, Wabba said the NLC was prepared to partner with relevant agencies to enforce the official N87 per litre fuel price.
