The Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has accused major marketers of fuel also known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) of allegedly diverting the product to independent marketers’ stations who in turn dispense at outrageous prices.
The organized labour described the variation in the pump price of the product from one petrol station to another as “alarming and unacceptable.”
These were parts of the resolutions of the State Administrative Council (SAC) meeting of NLC held in Ilorin and addressed to the state Deputy Governor, Mr Kayode Alabi.
The state NLC chairman, Comrade Aliyu Issa Ore who presided over the SAC meeting noted that it has been inundated with reports that PMS major marketers who were supposed to help cushion the adverse effects of the lingering fuel scarcity are aiding it, thus inflicting pain on the masses.
They explained that the exorbitant prices at which petrol is dispensed have led to an unprecedentedly high standard of living due to the resultant increase in the cost of food items in the market.
While commending Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for setting up a task force on the fuel crisis in the state, the organized labour urged the committee to include in its mandate daily records of PMS delivered to Kwara marketers, their petrol stations and total litres supplied to them for people to be abreast of the volume of fuel available to the state daily.
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The Council also called on the task force to pay unscheduled visits to petrol stations that took delivery of PMS to ensure they dispense to members of the public as and at when due and to avoid being sold in the dead of the night as experienced in some areas.
The NLC pleaded with the task force to provide mobile telephone numbers through which Kwarans could reach out to it upon the discovery of any fuel station working contrary to the laid down rules.
Naira redesign policy
The NLC also noted that the recent policy of the federal government to redesign the naira did not help matters because the little money available for spending at banks cannot be accessed by workers and by extension masses.
They appealed to the Governor to prevail on the Ilorin branch Controller of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to speed up the circulation of fifty and one hundred naira notes in addition to new notes for Kwarans use to mitigate the attendant hardship of the newly redesigned currency.
Emmanuel Ukoh
