The Federal Government has said that it has no intention to hike the prices of petroleum products in the country and has also given the minister of State Petroleum Resources Dr. Ibe Kachickwu and the Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Maikanti Baru, to end the growing queues in the nation’s petrol stations within the next 48 hours.
The Minister of information and Culture Mr. Lai Mohammed, while fielding questions from State House correspondents, today said that contrary to speculation, the government has no intention to increase fuel price in the country.
“The government has no intention at all to increase the pump price of PMS,” Mohammed said adding that “the minister of petroleum resources assured the council that we have enough products till the next one month, even till the end of January (2018)”.
He attributed the emerging queues at the fuel stations to the high demands of the products in colder regions stressing that “this is winter period, there is always more demand for refined products for petroleum during winter period in the colder countries, this is what we are experiencing now”.
The information minister said that “the council gave him (Kachickwu) a marching order that this fuel scarcity should not last beyond this weekend and they are going to work very hard to ensure that it is curtailed” adding that the petroleum minister “assured council that there is actually no cause for alarm”.