The House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) has called on the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to suspend the increase in pump price and immediately revert to the old price of petrol.
Recall that the NNPCL on Tuesday September 3, 2024 raised the pump price of petrol to N897 per litre from the official price of N617.
However, the Committee Chairman, Hon. Alhassan Doguwa in a statement issued Thursday said NNPCL should consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price.
He said: “As a committee, we urge the Nigerian government and of course the NNPCL to consider the plight of Nigerians and suspend this recent increase in pump price.
“Nigerians are currently going through a lot today and adding to this burden is not in our collective best interest.
.”Let us revert to the old pump price as soon as possible.” And probably intensify engagements with major stakeholders to address the problem.”
Doguwa who is also the Chairman, Special Committee on Crude Oil Theft and Vandalisation of pipelines, pledged the readiness of the committee to tackle the challenge caused by loss of revenue to the government owing to loss of crude.
He assured that the special committee would aggressively seek modalities to interface with the youths and community leaders in the oil-producing areas to address the frequent cases of crude oil theft, which is one of the reasons capable of affecting petrol supply across the country.
Doguwa noted that the committee was working in collaboration with security agencies in their quest to secure oil pipelines and other critical facilities in the country.