A chieftain of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Hon. Moshood Salvador has kicked against the hike in prices of petroleum products in the country.
Salvador charged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to revert to the underground pipeline network for distribution of the products to ensure their availability in the country and stop “making life difficult for Nigerians.”
He gave this charge on Friday at a press conference, declaring that he is against the new move which took the price of petrol from around N600 to N1,000 per litre and even above because it was creating too much hardship for Nigerians.
Salvador, who is also the Leader of Conscience Forum, a group within the opposition party, while making the call, said there were some information that the President should be aware of if he was yet in the know, recalling the petroleum policy in place which stipulated 5 per cent reservation for Nigerian consumption on daily of amount of crude produced in the country.
According to the LP chieftain, this 5 per cent of the daily crude is what they should refine for the country, noting that this policy had been in practice for a long time, but quickly wondered where such was being diverted to and, therefore, the need for President Tinubu to do his “investigation to know the truth and where they put the 5percent of the crude they produced everyday for Nigerian consumption.
“We advise Mr. President to revert back to the underground pipeline network for distribution of petroleum products to ensure petroleum products availablility in the country.
“We are not in support of the hike, it is creating too much hardship for our people. There are some things we believe Mr. President should know and if he doesn’t know, we have to provide the information to him.
“The petroleum policy we have been operating in this country has 5percent reservation for Nigerian consumption for daily crude supply. This 5percent of the daily crude is what they should refine for the country as we pay for cost of refining it. This is what has been in practice for a long time.
“Can we ask Mr. President, do your investigation to know the truth and where they put the 5percent of the crude they produced everyday for Nigerian consumption,” he said.
On the underground pipeline network system, Salvador stated that it was designed to make it easy for distribution of petroleum products in the country, even as he equally noted that Nigeria was handed over some of the best refineries in the whole world “which they now sabotaged and made sure they are no more functional.”
Besides, he sadly noted that even the channels of distribution of petroleum products, which is through the underground pipeline and designed for all states to get at the press of a button, had “now been converted to a haulage system where they would put trailers on the road and put Nigerians in danger.”
“What happened to all these underground pipelines? Salvador queried.
“For your information, the details of those underground pipelines, we have about 8 systems of these underground pipelines. System 2A is Warri-Benin, it is 90km length of pipeline and 16-inch diameter, with a machine that pumps 300 cubic meters per hour. It is there, what are they doing with it?
“Benin-Ore, the pipeline is 114km and 14-inch in diameter, which pumps 300 cubic meters per hour, I have to read all these to let you know that there is no area in the country that these pipelines network does not reach. These pipelines are still there, can we ask them what are they there for?” he further queried.
“The leadership of the Labour Party is asking Mr. President to revert back to this and stop punishing Nigerians, making life difficult for Nigerians. They should go back and investigate all these and get the facts for them to work on.
“That’s why we need to call the attention of everybody in this country to make sure that they are on the government to stop this hardship for our people. We in the Labour Party, we are not at all in support of the hike in petroleum price,” he declared.
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