The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has reacted to the new increase in price of petrol.
CUPP while slamming President Bola Tinubu‘s government, said the subsidy removal is now looking like a scam.
The price of petrol shot up from N540 to N617 per litre on Tuesday following an announcement by the federal government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, in a subsequent statement, attributed the recent rise in petrol pump prices to market forces.
Kyari offered this explanation shortly after a meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Aso Villa.
Reacting, however, to the hardship brought upon Nigerians as a result of the latest development, CUPP said fuel subsidy removal by President Tinubu’s administration is now looking like a scam to the citizens.
CUPP criticized the ‘crazy and unending fuel price hikes’ which, according to it is driving inflation to the rooftops and making life increasingly unbearable for Nigerians generally.
In a press release signed by the group’s national co-spokesperson, Mark Adebayo, on Wednesday, CUPP frowned at the sudden increase barely a month after the fuel price was hiked over 300% on May 29th this year.
The press release reads: “It has come to the attention of the CUPP the sudden and surreptitious increase yet again in the pump prices of petrol by NNPCL which has immediately started having negative domino effects on all other commodities and services in the country and further drowning most Nigerians into excruciating poverty and unprecedented economic woes.
“This subsidy removal scheme is increasingly looking like a scam to cage Nigerians inside a preprogrammed regime of socioeconomic slavery dictated by leadership insensitivity. This is not about opposition Parties. The opposition actually felt that the president had something better to offer Nigerians after the subsidy removal but what we are witnessing now is a double negative impact on Nigerians in every way imaginable.
“The way NNPCL is behaving now suggests that there is a hidden agenda of crazy and unending fuel price hikes that will be driving inflation to the rooftops and making life increasingly unbearable for Nigerians generally.
“No purposeful government would recklessly abandon its citizens to the unpredictable and inhumane market forces that are essentially atrocious and callous in nature without a robust intervention to protect the citizens. Such a policy is not only antisocial but also outrageously iniquitous. Nigerians have shown enough understanding of the subsidy removal; this administration should not push them to the wall and thereby instigate unmanageable mass crises that could further jeopardize the life of the common man.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must immediately show himself as a compassionate leader by ensuring that the NNPCL is not hijacked by the same forces that stole the fuel subsidy monies leading to its removal and finding a backdoor to continue claiming the subsidy by other means and making Nigerians bear the brunt of their economic terrorism. We demand the immediate removal of the NNPCL GMD, Mele Kyari, to allow for a breath of fresh air in the organization and for his tenure to be forensically investigated and all discovered infractions to be comprehensively prosecuted before the NNPCL is turned into the terrorist arm of the economic cabal.”
CUPP urged the federal government to, without further hesitation, do something to reverse the recent fuel price hikes and stop any future plans to clandestinely increase the pump prices with the predictable value of increasing the sufferings of Nigerians.
“When will Nigerians be free from the wickedness of their governments?”, CUPP asked.