Fuel Price Hike: TUC Gives FG 14-day Ultimatum - As Oil Workers Begin Strike Nation-wide

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal government to reverse the increase in petrol price from N75 to N65 per litre.

The congress also said that the five per cent being charged for Value Added Tax should remain instead of the 10 per cent to which it was increased by former President Olusegun Obasanjo less than 48 hours to his leaving office.


The congress also called for the reversal of the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.


It said failure to do this would lead to an indefinite strike by the union.


The TUC gave the ultimatum on Friday in Lagos after its emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the office of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).


The communique of the meeting was signed by the TUC’s President General, Comrade Peter Esele, and Secretary General, Comrade John Kolawole.


The communique stated that apart from the increase of fuel price and sale of the refineries, “the congress is of the strong belief that the Nigerian workers and the masses cannot afford to absorb the spiralling inflation occasioned by the unholy actions.”


It also called for the implementation of the 15 per cent salary increase with effect from January 2007.


Meanwhile, President of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Peter Akpatason has ordered all members of the Union to proceed on strike against the hike in petroleum products.


Comrade Akpatason gave the directive on Friday morning from America where he went for a seminar, adding that it is necessary to embark on strike as a way of expressing their disgust over the hike.


He used the opportunity to appeal to President Umaru Yar’Adua to reduce the price and allow Nigerians to enjoy the dividend of democracy.


Saturday Tribune gathered that all the depots in the South-West part of the country have complied with the directives.


Speaking with ST, the Vice-Chairman of Ibadan depot, Alhaji Tajudeen Olalekan explained that independent depots in Lagos have embarked on strike since Wednesday based on the harassment they faced with the Lagos State Traffick Management Agency (LASTMA) over parking space of the trucks that comes to load in Lagos.


Said he:“We actually came to work today expecting to get products loaded at a reduced price as promised by the federal government but to our surprise, the Special Depot Managers told us that there was no fuel supply and we later got the president’s directives.


All efforts to get the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Ibadan Unit proved abortive.


Queues have started to re-appear in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja less than a week after the hike in the pump price of fuel from N65 per litre to N75 per litre.


Long queues of vehicles have become a common feature in most filling stations in the metropolis and environs in the past three days.


Some of the motorists, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja, blamed the development on marketers involved in product hoarding and diversion.


The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had issued a threat to go on strike over the sale of African Petroleum (AP) and the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.


At the AP filling station in Maitama, the station manager, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that the station had no difficulty in the supply and distribution of fuel.


The manager said the build-up of queues, which, he observed, started on Wednesday could be as a result of some motorists who came from outside the FCT to buy the commodity.


The source noted that of late filling stations in the FCT had been witnessing queues of vehicles.


Five days into the new pump price regime the regulatory body of the oil and gas sector, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), said that it was yet to receive any official notification from PPPRA.


In spite of being Africa’s biggest oil producer fuel shortages have severely affected the country.


Many Nigerians have been forced to pay exce-ssive prices for the commodity at the black market.
(C)Rasheed Komolafe and Qudirat Hakeem-Apanpa--Tribune