Don’t push Nigerians to the wall, PDP warns Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party has said the regime headed by President Muhammadu Buhari is pushing Nigerians to the wall with its “arrogant display of insensitivity and total disregard to the demands by the citizens,” calling for an immediate downward review in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol).

The opposition party described the attempt by the Buhari-led regime to justify the “wicked” increase in the pump price from N87 per litre under the PDP-led administration to N160 under the present regime as “provocative, confrontational and totally unacceptable to Nigerians.”

The PDP stated this in a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, titled, ‘Fuel Hike: You Are Pushing Nigerians to the Wall, PDP Cautions Buhari.’

The statement partly read, “Our party holds that the defence of such a humongous hike, which has worsened the hardship being suffered by Nigerians under the Buhari administration, is in bad taste and should be rescinded immediately.

“It is indeed an unpardonable slap on the sensibilities of Nigerians that after running a heavily corrupt oil trade and subsidy regime, through which over N14tn had been allegedly frittered by its officials, the Buhari administration seeks to put the burden of high costs on innocent and already impoverished citizens.

“The PDP totally rejects this attempt to hinge the increase in fuel price on presumed removal of oil subsidy when it has failed to account for the proceeds of oil sales in the last five years, even in the face of confession by the (Group) Managing Director of the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), Mele Kyari, in April this year, that the APC administration had been running an over bloated and sleazy oil subsidy regime.

“Also, the Buhari administration had failed to account for the confession by the NNPC that it was engaged in secret siphoning of oil money through a claimed subsidising of fuel for certain West African countries.”

The PDP recalled that prior to Buhari’s emergence as President, had declared fuel subsidy a fraud. “Five years after, the government, which he heads, is watching over a subsidy regime that is brimming with corruption,” the party said.

– Punch