The Coalition of Northern Group CNG has called on Nigerians to hold Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria(IPMAN)responsible for the sudden deterioration of the prices of Petroleum a few hours after the announcement by government on the subsidy.
The group said their amazed by the desperation of the Independent oil marketers who are quick to hike the fuel pump prices by almost five hundred percent within just 12 hours of the announcement of the subsidy removal.
Group spokesperson of the group ,Abdul-Azeez Suleiman made the call in a statement made available to journalists, said the quick hike and desperation to hoard the commodity is aimed at stocking anger against the new administration .
According to Abdul Azeez,”We call on the new administration of President Bola Tinubu to handle this obviously dicey situation with utmost wisdom and compassion so that the innocent public is not made victim.
“We call the attention of the Tinubu administration to be vigilant over the latent trap set for it with the subsidy issue by the outgone government aiming to set it on a collision course with the public early in the day.
“We therefore advise government to deploy maximum wisdom, and caution to chart a workable means of dealing with the bad situation deliberately thrown on its laps in such a way that no one gets hurt”,he said .
The statement partly read:”Government should device compassionate ways of cushioning the impact of the subsidy removal without necessarily compromising its economic recovery policies.
“We demand from the Federal Government action to call the syndicate that have siphoned the trillions of Naira of public funds during the previous regime in the name of a fictitious, fraudulent oil subsidy to account.
“We call on the Federal Government not to be distracted by the antics of discredited self-serving labour leaders, unscrupulous oil marketers and a few unpatriotic officials of the NNPCL who would seize every opportunity to undermine its good intentions”.
Speaking on the consequences,he noted that the Coalition of Northern Groups has convened a meeting of all the 150 affiliate groups and other concerned associations that took the previous decisions of 2020 on NLC deceptions to discuss and come up with a unified position on the current situation on Monday, June 5, 2023 at the Arewa House, Kaduna.