***Describes Buhari’s Govt As Anti-People
Ogun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has vehemently condemned the increase in price of Premium Motor Spirit from N86 to N145 per litre as announced by the Federal Government on Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
The party, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Malik Ibitoye, and made available to newsmen on Thursday, stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is anti-people and undemocratic.
According to the statement, “the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has once again demonstrated its hatred for the Nigerian masses and the downtrodden people of Nigeria.
“Just a few weeks to the celebration of its first anniversary in office, the Buhari-led government officially increased pump price of Premium Motor Spirit from N86 to N145 to the chagrin of millions of Nigeria.
“It must be noted that the APC-led government has constantly displayed its arbitrariness with the brazen manner it has been churning out anti-people policies one of which is this latest onslaught on the people.”
The party stressed that the fuel price increment is arbitrary, anti-people, anti-democratic, retrogressive, adding that it must be condemned by all right thinking persons, regardless of party affiliation.
It was emphasised in the statement that “it is unthinkable that Buhari’s government would ever thought of foisting increase in fuel pump price on Nigerians, who have been made to go through months of fuel scarcity and hyper-inflation in the last couple of months.”
To this end, the Ogun State PDP said that they were not surprised “by what is being revealed daily by the government that promised to change the life of the people for the better, it only confirms what we said repeatedly before, during and after the last general elections in the country.”
The party accused the Federal Government, under President Buhari, of succumbing ‘so cheaply to the pressure from the oil magnates in the country.’
They added that they were beginning to doubt the ability of President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Nigeria from the doldrums because, according to them, the president has added more insult upon injury for Nigerians in a country where there is no electricity, no job, and no security.
“Our fears are that it would not stop at that as petrol price may go beyond N200 per litre in the next few months because we could see the marketers jubilating that they have won the battle,” they said in the statement.
They said further: “We want to agree with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) that said in a statement that “the unilateral increase in prices of petroleum products today by government represents the height of insensitivity and impunity and shall be resisted by the NLC and its civil society allies.”
“It added that with “the unjustifiable electricity tariff and other economic challenges brought on by the devaluation of the naira and inflation, the least one had expected was another policy measure that would make life miserable for the ordinary Nigerian.”
The party revealed that they were not surprised with what the APC-led Government has done, but that “we only pray that Nigerians would not be further pushed to the precipice as it appears that we have indeed boarded a one chance bus with this apparently insensitive government.”
