By Our Correspondent
A call has gone out to the federal government to keep the four refineries functional so as to reduce dependent on importation of petroleum products.
A Niger Delta based Center for Peace and Environmental Justice, made the call, urging government to restore sanity to the petroleum sector, and welcomed the decision to remove subsidy by the government.
The Center expressed worries over the lingering scarcity of petroleum products in the country and urged the government to put measures in place to check hoarding of products by unscrupulous marketers.
It slammed the government for a slight reduction in the prices of products, noting that the reduction should have been meaningful to assuage the plight of Nigerians, describing the current reduction as a Greek gift.
The Center advised President Muhammadu Buhari to walk the talk, otherwise his change mantra would be seen by Nigerians as a mere political gimmick to win their votes, stressing that Nigerians expected to see real change in every facet of the economy.
The Center called on the regulatory body to enforce the new price regime, and give Nigerians a sense of hope, otherwise Nigerians would believe allegations that they have been conniving with the marketers to sell products over the official price.
National Coordinator, CEPEJ, Comrade Sherrif Mulade, ‘’Government new pump price has not changed anything going by the change mantra of the President. Our checks have shown that some stations say that they do not have products to sell while others still sell above the official pump price and are yet to revert to the new price.”
The Center implored the government to ameliorate the plight of Nigerians as the persistent fuel scarcity has caused untold hardship on them.
It maintained that Nigeria was the only crude oil countries in the world which her citizens have to pay through the nose for petroleum products, saying that oil was rather a curse than a blessing to the country.
It equally advised the government to clear the rot in the Petroleum Ministry to give hope to Nigerians that the era of business as usual was in the past, as the government cannot continues to do things the same ways as the previous administrations and expect change.
