By Tochukwu Bliss, Abuja
The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), yesterday, condemned the sudden increase of pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, describing it as worrisome and unfair.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), yesterday, jerked up f PMS to N897 per litre in its retail outlets across the country.
NECA’s Director-General, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, in a statement, said: “We had expected that the government would leverage on the momentum created by the completion of the Dangote Refinery and the planned commencement of operation of the Port-Harcourt Refinery.
“This is in order to clear the obvious self-inflicted pain on Nigerians and progressively reduce the pump price of petrol. This seems not to be the case.
“This new pump price could be seen as making Nigerians pay for the crass inefficiency in the NNPCL.”
The Association argued that rather than address the fundamentals that made Nigeria a net importer of petrol, even as it hosts four refineries, the government continues to inflict pain on Nigerians, thereby contributing to the increase in the cost of doing business.
NECA therefore advised that “the government should have a rethink and do all that is necessary to address the continuous impoverishment of Nigerians and incapacitation of organised businesses.”
This new pump price could be seen as making Nigerians pay for the crass inefficiency in the NNPCL.
