Party says 50 kobo reduction in fuel price is too small

The National Publicity Secretary, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, has criticised the Federal Government over its planned reduction of fuel prices from N87 to N86.50.

Metuh said “After heightened expectations occasioned by the promise to review the N87 per litre pump price of petrol made by the administration amid crippling scarcity of the product during the Christmas season, the announcement of this tokenism has come as a disappointing anti-climax, considering that only in January this year, the PDP Federal Government reduced the pump price from N97 to N87 per litre.”

Adding that “That was done in the wake of the fall in the price of crude oil to between $42.65 and $50 per barrel.

“The PDP government then, in reaction to the development in the global oil market, revised its pricing template that brought down the pump price by N2.84 more than the N87 fixed as the pump price of petrol.

“The implication was that the Federal Government was still subsidising the N87 price by N2.84 per every litre of the product.”

He also said “The APC-controlled Federal Government, consequent upon stepping in the saddle on May 29, this year considered the market and decided through a supplementary appropriation to pay N413bn as subsidy to petroleum marketers.”

The PDP Publicity Secretary also called on the Federal Government to stop making Goodluck Jonathan's administration look dubious.

Olisa Metuh obtained a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State and was called to the Nigerian bar in 1988.