THE main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari to reverse the new fuel price saying that Nigerians are in hardship already.
Kola Ologbondiyan, spokesperson of the PDP said in a statement on Wednesday, that the opposition party demanded an immediate reversal of the prices to avert a national crisis.
“The party demands an immediate reversal of the prices to avert a national crisis, as the increase will result in an upsurge in costs of goods and services and worsen the biting hardship being faced by Nigerians, who are already impoverished and overburdened by APC -imposed high cost of living in the last five years,” he said.
Ologbondiyan said while the new fuel price was coming a week after the increase in electricity tariff, the Buhari-APC led government has proven itself to be the centre of harsh policies.
Lamenting the increase in fuel price and electricity tariff, PDP spokesperson noted that it was shocking that the government could increase the fuel price when many Nigerians were struggling to afford staple foods and necessities of life.
The opposition party challenged Buhari and the APC to publish the parameters through which it arrived at the price increase.
“Our party challenges the APC and Buhari administration to publish the parameters with which it arrived at the increase of fuel price to N151 per litre given that with the prevailing values in the international market, the appropriate price template for domestic pump price in Nigeria ought not to be above N100 per litre,” he said.
He further challenged the APC-led government to publish details of its ‘sleazy and over-bloated oil subsidy regime, including the involvement of APC interests in the claimed under-recovery for unnamed West African countries running into trillions of naira’.
The party alleged that the APC and its government have failed to allow an open investigation into allegations of fuel price overcharge as well as the ‘fraudulent subsidy regime through which over N14 trillion had allegedly been frittered by unscrupulous individuals in the APC’.
The party called on the National Assembly to ‘save the nation’ by calling the Federal Government before the nation is thrown into chaos.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94