NNPC Gives Update On Increasing Petrol Pump Price In Nigeria

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has declared that the pump price per litre of petrol won’t be increased until the federal government concludes negotiations with labour.

The group general manager, group public affairs division of NNPC, Kennie Obateru made the disclosure in a statement released on Friday.

The statement comes about twenty-four hours after the NNPC group managing director, Mele Kyari disclosed that the federal government may be forced to increase the price of petrol again.

He made the disclosure during a statehouse press briefing on Thursday which was monitored by Naija News.

According to him, it no longer makes sense for NNPC to import petrol at market price and sell at N162 per litre. He added further that the actual market price should be between N211 and N234 per litre.

The NNPC boss stated that the government can no longer bear the burden of the difference between the actual market price and what Nigerians are paying for petrol.

However, the NNPC spokesperson in an update on Friday said petrol will remain at N165 per litre for now as the corporation will maintain its current ex-depot price of N162 for premium motor spirit (PMS), better known as petrol, until the end of negotiations with organised labour.

Obateru noted that increasing petrol price at this time will be equal to preempting the outcome of negotiations between the government and organized labour.

He added that NNPC has enough supply of the product and citizens and residents have nothing to fear about the availability of petrol.

He also warned marketers against hoarding petrol products while urging residents not to engage in panic buying.

In other news, the Presidency says President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ending banditry and terrorism in the Nothern part of the country.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in Abuja during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.

He said President Buhari has ordered the security agencies to shoot at sight anyone caught in the illegal possession of AK-47 rifles, saying that the order still stands.

Shehu neither confirmed nor debunked the claim that President Buhari would relax the shoot-at-sight order in exchange for the release of some abducted students.

He also condemned some media practitioners for glamorising crime by making some Boko Haram terrorists look like heroes.