The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has told President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce the price of Premium Motto Spirit, also known as petrol, to N70 per litre.
The PDP said it rejects completely, the N121 per litre announced by the President Buhari-led government yesterday.
The government had embarked on phased price reduction in the last few months -from N145 to N125 then N121 on Tuesday.
But in a statement posted on its official Twitter handle on Tuesday, the PDP described the new price as highly provocative and a further display of the insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, particularly as they battle the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The party charged the government to immediately reduce the pump price to N70 per litre, to reflect the appropriate pricing template following the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.
“This is in continuation of the N55 per liter overcharge, which Nigerians had borne under the inappropriate N125 per liter, which prevailed for months, before it was brought down to N123.5 per liter, in spite of the crash in international price of crude oil,” the party said.
The party rejected what it described as the unnecessary price pinching and demanded that the Buhari-led government should come immediately implement the appropriate price.
The opposition also wants the government to, without further delay, declare and account for the billions of naira accruable as overcharge since the crash in crude oil price due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The failure to reduce the pump price as well as the non-declaration of the overcharge is completely unacceptable to Nigerians, as it only points to questions of corruption in the system,” the party added.
The main opposition party said it insists that the Buhari government has no justifiable reason to retain the pump price of fuel at over N70 per liter.
It challenged the government to disprove Nigerians by immediately publishing the prevailing landing cost, depot cost, trucking cost as well as the retail outlet admin cost and show why the pump price should be above N70 per liter.
The PDP called on the National Assembly to protect the interest of Nigerians by using their legislative instruments to prevail on the President Buhari-led APC government to implement the appropriate fuel pricing and account for the overcharges.