The President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Olabode Johnson, has again warned the federal government against any plan to raise the pump price of petrol, saying such thought will destabilize the country as Nigerians are ready to ignite uprising that may collapse the nation.
According to him, “Definitely, we can’t go up again…any increase in pump price now will be very unfair to Nigerians.
He added that any attempt to increase fuel price would force the organised labour to take action.
“If there is anything like that, I believe the stakeholders and everybody will be called in to action.
“For me as a labour leader, any increase in pump price now will be very unfair to Nigerians.
“Why I keep saying this is because the NNPC has increased their own from N141 to N145, then people are saying that there is going to be increase. It is not possible.
“There is a sealing and there is a bar. It is only when NNPC or anybody goes beyond that we can say there are issues. For a long time, people have been selling below that bar and now that NNPC is going for N145 some are also going for N141 and N143.
“That is the beauty of the industry. I don’t think the government will take another step and as labour, if there is anything like that I believe the stakeholders and everybody will be called in to action.
“Anything outside that is not acceptable because Nigerians are groaning and suffering,” he said.
“Now the government is also looking at what they can do with the dollar parity, there was a meeting that you cannot buy above N390 to a dollar and sell above this.
“For us and Nigerians, any increase is going to affects Nigerians the more and like a friend keeps telling me any sacrifice that has no terminal date is meant to kill somebody.
“Definitely we can’t go up again. I also know again that with what the government is trying to do on the issue of dollar exchange rate; before the end of the year we will see the price coming down”, Johnson added.
