During the newly sworn-in President inaugural speech, he announced the removal of petroleum subsidies thus setting off a chain of events which has seen petroleum marketers shutting down their stations while others have arbitrarily increased the prices of their products as uncertainty looms in the sector.
The move which has put the entire downstream sector of the petroleum industry into a frenzy has attracted knocks from stakeholders as some have called for a quick review of the action before more damage is done.
Checks on some filling stations in Lagos revealed most marketers have increased the price of PMS from ₦180 to as high as ₦350 while some unconfirmed sources have mentioned some stations even sell as high as ₦400
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC while reacting to the statement, rejected the move saying the union was not aware of the President’s decision. This was confirmed in a statement by the head of the information department of the NLC, Comrade Benson Upah.
The NLC information boss who described the move as a very dicey one with grave implications also stated that the union would keenly follow up with the pronouncement before responding.
The body of petroleum marketers, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN has also rejected the President's decision to enforce subsidy removal.
According to a statement issued by the National Public Relations Officer of the association, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, the President should have held a dialogue with stakeholders before making the pronouncement.
“We are not in support of the removal of fuel subsidy at this time. We have said it repeatedly that our refineries should be fixed before taking such decision that will cause galloping inflation and inflict more hardship on the masses.
“The government of President Tinubu should not adopt what is in the transition document handed over to it by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Someone (Buhari) who for eight years did not remove subsidy is advising a new government to remove it.
As of this morning, most fillings stations in Lagos have shut down operations while some have long queues of very anxious Nigerians waiting in line to buy the now scarce product.