No hike in petrol price for now – Marketers; Don’t dare increase, PDP warns FG

By Solomon Asowata (Lagos)/Emmanuel Oloniruha (Abuja)
Lagos, March 12, 2021

Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) say there is no hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol.

The groups confirmed the development in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos while reacting to reports that the price of PMS has been increased to N212.61 per litre.

Currently petrol sells at N162 and N165 per litre at most filling stations across the country.

Mr Clement Isong, the Executive Secretary, MOMAN, told NAN that the association had received communication from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there should be no price increment for PMS.

Isong said, “NNPC has told us that they will not increase prices in March. If you recall, they have made a statement on that earlier and have reconfirmed to us that there is no increment.

“They have also put it out on their social media handles.’’

According to him, queues noticed at filling stations in some states of the country in recent weeks are due to speculation that there will be price increase.

“What NNPC did was to take out the speculation by giving assurance that price will not go up in March and that killed the queues and demand went down.

“What they have done again this morning is to take out the speculation out of the market. They always have enough products,’’ he said.

Isong added that MOMAN had advised its members to continue retailing with the old price regime.

Similarly, Mr Chinedu Okoronkwo, President, IPMAN said marketers had received communication from NNPC that there would not be any price increment until government and organised labour concluded their deliberations.

“There is no increment. Government is still talking with labour. What we are even concerned about is total deregulation of the market.

“There are other alternative sources of energy to PMS and we cannot continue to focus all our attention only on that product.

 Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday advised the Federal Government against increasing pump price of petrol.

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, in Abuja said any contemplation to increase pump price of petrol to N212 would worsen the economic and social situations of Nigerians.

This was in reaction to a debunked report that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) on Thursday night released a template that a litre of fuel would now be sold for prices ranging from N209 to N212 per litre for March.

Ologbondiyan said that the N212 per liter reportedly contemplated in the March pricing template was not in the best interest of Nigerians.

“It is a barefaced fact that there is no way that Nigerians can survive such hike in fuel price, which will worsen the already agonizing economic situation in the country.

“Our party maintains that with an honest and transparent administration of our national production capacity and potentialities, domestic price of fuel should not exceed N70 per liter.”

Ologbondiyan said any increase in fuel price would be unacceptable with over 100 million citizens living in abject poverty, 23 per cent unemployment rate and many more living below N500 a day.

He advised government to save the nation by ending every contemplation of fuel price increase, particularly at the time Nigerians were expecting a downward review in prices.

The Federal Government had assured Nigerians that there would be no increment in the pump price of petroleum until conclusion of consultation with Organised Labour.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, gave the assurance while addressing newsmen on Friday in Lagos on alleged increased to N212.61 per litre.

He said:”Irrespective of the source of that information, I want to assure you that it is completely untrue.

“Neither Mr President who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources nor myself who deputises for him as minister of state has approved that petrol price should be increased by one naira.

“I therefore urge you to disregard this misleading information.”

On his part, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), advised the public to stop panic buying, saying there was enough stock and the price has not changed.

Yakubu urged people to ignore the rumours making the rounds, while advising all their marketers to continue selling at the official price.

Also, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA) said the March guiding prices posted on its website did not translate to increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.

The PPPRA Executive Secretary, Abdulkadir Saidu, in a statement on Friday, said the attention of the PPPRA has been drawn to speculations about the increased pump price of PMS.

“The PPPRA by this release wishes to state clearly that the guiding prices posted on our website was only indicative of current market trends and do not translate to any increase in pump price of PMS.

“However, publications by the media to this effect have been misconstrued and thus misleading,’’ he said.

He said that the introduction of the market-based pricing regime for PMS Regulation 2020 was gazetted by the Federal Government.

According to him, based on this regulation, prices are expected to be determined by market realities in line with the dictates of market forces.