President Bola Tinubu’s administration appears to have increased the petrol price from N650 to N855 per litre, as seen on the fuel dispensers at government-owned NNPC stations on Tuesday. This comes amidst an ongoing fuel scarcity and crisis in Nigeria. The new price of N855 per litre was displayed on dispensing machines at NNPC stations in Lagos and Abuja, suggesting an upward revision to account for the nation’s current foreign exchange challenges and the increasing cost of fuel importation.
In response to this price adjustment, other filling stations also raised their prices to N897 per litre on Tuesday morning. When asked about the price hike, Femi Soneye, the spokesperson for NNPC, told Peoples Gazette, “I’m not aware. But I’ll find out.”Since President Tinubu took office and announced the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023, petrol prices have fluctuated between N580 and N700 per litre. However, in recent weeks, Nigeria has been experiencing severe fuel shortages, prompting the few stations with available fuel to sell at prices exceeding N900 per litre, while prices in the black market soared beyond N1,000 per litre.
Despite these developments, the Tinubu administration issued a statement on Thursday denying claims that it had officially increased the fuel price to N1,000 per litre.
The statement, released by Nnemaka Okafor, the special adviser on media and communication to the Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, stated: “The federal government is compelled to address the outright falsehoods currently being circulated on social media, which claim that the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to inflate petroleum prices above the approved pump price.”
