Labour union for workers in the petroleum sector, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) has maintained that the total deregulation of the downstream sector and complete removal of fuel subsidy will solve the nation’s prolonged fuel crisis and scarcity.
Addressing reporters in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, Saturday, the National President of NUPENG, Mr Igwe Achese, said that Nigerians would continue to experience scarcity and inflation in prices of petroleum products from time to time unless the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) returned to its statutory role, as the sole importer of petrol.
Mr Achese lamented the lack of political will on the part of the government over the total removal of fuel subsidy on imported and refined products.
He further stressed the need for the government to create an enabling environment to encourage private sector’s interest in building refineries in Nigeria for the purpose of improving the local refining capacity to meet the ever increasing local demand of petroleum products and indeed for exportation purposes.
