- NNPC to sell to marketers at N153 on specialized platform
- Buhari’s official cars to run on gas
- Price increase wicked, unbearable – PDP
Nigerians are to henceforth pay between N168 and N170 for a litre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, as the new depot price for the product goes into effect.
The Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in a memo dated 11th November, set the ex-depot price of petrol to N155.17 per litre, from N147.67 per litre.
The new price, which is the fifth such increase in the last five months, became effective yesterday, according to the memo signed by Tijjani Ali. However, the NNPC, in a statement issued by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs, Mr. Kennie Obateru, yesterday said it would sell the product at N153.17 per litre for oil marketers using its online platform to source for the product.
The development compelled the IPMAN to direct its members to start selling the product from a price range of N168 per litre to N171 per litre.
This is coming as vehicles in the Presidential Fleet and those of members of the Executive Council of the Federation would be converted to use gas as fuel, according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva.
Sylva, who had revealed this to newsmen on Wednesday, said the conversion of the vehicles to use compressed natural gas (CNG), which is an alternative fuel type to petrol (also called PMS) for automobiles, is a step in his ministry’s plans to roll out the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) on November 30.
The minister said the government wants to end the reliance of Nigerians on petrol, which deregulation has pushed its price almost beyond the reach of many consumers.
However, in a swift reaction to the price increase, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it rejected the increase, describing it as wicked, unbearable and unacceptable.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja yesterday, the party insisted that the present increase in the pump price will worsen the already suffocating economic situation in the country, saying that such hike will also be an additional log tied on the economic neck of Nigerians.
It said this is so, particularly given the prevailing excruciating economic crunch, which according to it, is already foisted on Nigerians by the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
