The Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation on Monday defended the recent N4 increase in the pump price
of Premium Motor Spirit at its filling stations across the country
despite the statement made by the Minister of State for Petroleum
Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, that the hike was wrong.
Kachikwu had on Saturday stated that he
was unaware of the increase in the pump price of petrol at the NNPC
filling stations, telling journalists that the development was wrong as
there were processes to be followed before raising fuel price.
“First, I am not aware that the NNPC has
increased the price. I need to look into that. It is a bit of surprise
for me, because there are processes in doing this; if they have done
that, it means they are doing it wrongly,” the minister had said.
Filling stations run by the national oil
firm had been selling fuel at N141 per litre, but last week Thursday,
they increased the price of the commodity by N4 to the government
approved benchmark of N145.
In reaction to the price increase at its
filling stations, the management of the corporation in several Twitter
messages on Monday stated that it was not empowered statutorily to
tinker with the pricing template of petroleum products.
It insisted that it had not gone beyond
the N145 per litre price margin that was approved by the Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.
“The price adjustment in the NNPC
downstream facilities from N141 to N145/litre is still within the price
band of N135 to N145/litre approved by the PPPRA,” it stated.
Our correspondent observed that the
major filling stations of the oil firm continued to dispense the PMS at
N145 per litre on Monday despite the minister’s statement that it was
wrong for it to sell at that price.
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