Group decries N3.6 trillion vote for fuel subsidy

A group, Natives, has decried the N3.6 trillion 2023 budgetary provision for fuel subsidy. The Smart Edwards-led group charged stakeholders to start preparing for fuel subsidy removal by June this year, as the country could not continue with the policy.

Warning depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) against inflicting more hardship on Nigerians, Natives enjoined stakeholders to stop threatening Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited for ensuring product supply at affordable rates nationwide.

The group noted: “We call on IPMAN, PTD and NUPENG to look inwards, sanitise their group and purge themselves, as well as expel from their midst some unscrupulous members and unpatriotic players, who engage in smuggling, to desist from this retrogressive act declared on the nation to carry out their businesses without let or hindrance rather than accusing the military or security agencies of taking actions based on intelligence gathered.

The anti-sabotage organisation was reacting to a media report credited to Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (PTD-NUPENG), threatening another strike.

In the report NUPENG had accused security agents of “illegal activities and high-handedness, particularly the Military Task Force operating in Port Harcourt zone of the union.”

But in a statement, the group said instead of threatening the NNPCL and sabotaging Nigerians, DAPPMAN and other unions in the oil sector should devise another productive means of resolving impasse among stakeholders.