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The Trade Union Congress has frowned at the recent increment in the price of petroleum, demanding an urgent return of the prices to what they were as of June 2023.
TUC National President, Festus Osifo said this during a press briefing in Abuja.
The union condemned the sudden increment in the recent pump price of fuel across the nation.
It, however advised the government to provide foreign exchange to the Dangote refinery.
According to Osifo, “We want the price of the product to go below what it was before; not just reverse to what it was before but to go below.
“The solution we are proposing if implemented will take us to the price we had as of June last year,” Osifo stated, stressing that “there is no government in the world that doesn’t intervene in its critical sector” and that the Federal Government “shouldn’t leave it (the oil sector) to the vagaries and gyration of our naira”.
The TUC leader underscored the need for the availability, affordability, and accessibility of petrol for all Nigerians owing to the essential nature of the product.
The union said, “We want the Federal Government to, through Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority give all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery.”
“If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient.
“So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. This is crucial to address the availability need," Osifo said.
