No plan to hike fuel price, FG insists

The federal government on Tuesday said it was not contemplating any increase in the price of petrol in the foreseeable future.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja by Mr Lanre Oladele, the spokesman for the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

It said that there was no iota of truth in the rumour making the rounds that government wanted to increase the pump price of fuel.

The statement said that panic-buying of petrol contributed to the rumour of a possible price hike and was further reinforced by a purported report of the International Monetary Fund on Nigeria.

It said the report was said to have recommended a raise in the current price of petrol.

"There is no iota of truth to the speculation as there is no such plan in the works," it stated.

It corroborated the statement made by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, during her inspection of some filling stations in Lagos over the weekend

The statement said that the minister said there was no basis for such rumour and that there was nothing to justify or suggest another price hike.

It said that the minister had put in place measures to end the persistent fuel crisis in the country by bringing those found sabotaging government efforts to book.

The statement said that the Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Mr Farouk Ahmed, also embarked on measures to ensure that the fuel scarcity was checked within a very short period.

It stated that Ahmed and his team visited some facilities in Lagos over the weekend.

"When Ahmed visited NIPCO facilities in Apapa on Saturday, products were being discharged from vessels that had berthed, while trucks were loading products for distribution to different filling stations in Lagos.

"Top officials of the company assured the team that discharge and distributions of fuel had resumed and were uninterrupted,” it stated.

The statement said  that PPMC, last Friday, supplied over 74 million litres of petrol to Lagos and other parts of the South West to stem the scarcity.

"To keep the zone wet with products, PPMC, according to its Executive Director, Commercial, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, would supply another 110 million litres of petrol immediately.

"Meanwhile, more filling stations have continued to receive products and normalcy is fast returning as most stations have products to dispense to customers," it stated.