The Federal Government’s promise to help Nigerians convert their cars to run on gas from petrol has turned out to be a lie as persons interested in such conversions will now have to pay an average of N250,000.
The revelation comes barely two months after the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said on NTA that the government would do the conversions free of charge in order to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians affected by the spike in pump price of petrol.
Sylva had amid threats by the organised labour to embark on a strike, said the government would convert cars to run on gas for free.
The minister had said, “The alternative we are now introducing is gas which is definitely going to be cheaper than the subsidised rate of PMS. So, what we are trying to encourage Nigerians to do now is to convert their cars to dual fuel.
“And when you convert your car for free, you go to the filling station, you see the price of PMS (Premium Motor Spirit), you see the price of gas, you can decide to buy LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas), you can decide to buy LNG (Liquefied Natural gas). These are all going to be available and we are going to have a rollout plan for this within October.”
However, on Wednesday, the minister’s Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation, Justice Derefaka, said those interested in converting their vehicles would have to part with an average of N250,000, while persons using Sports Utility Vehicles may have to pay more.
He said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Wednesday.
When asked who would foot the bill, Derefaka replied, “Let me turn the question to you. Who owns the car?”
When asked how much vehicle owners would pay, Derefaka said, “The cost varies. So, in terms of cost implication, it depends on the cylinder of the vehicle and of course, for a typical SUV cylinder, it is a bit higher but on the average, it is around N200,000 to N250,000 and this is for a four-cylinder vehicle but it becomes a little bit higher for a six-cylinder SUV.”
When reminded of the fact that the Federal Government had promised to do it for free, Derefaka said what the government implied was that people would get it for free and would be allowed to pay within seven months.
