Motorists in Port Harcourt, Benin City and Lagos woke up to a further increase in pump prices at the official outlets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of up to N885 per litre.
Till the recent petrol scarcity, Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) sold at N591 per litre at the NNPC outlets, while independent markets sold for as high as N900/l
Sources from NNPC outlets in Port Harcourt’s Aba Road said the official marketer had increased the pump price by N294, about a 50% increment.
Sources in Lagos said the price is fixed at N855/litre in the commercial hub of the country.
NNPC recently disclosed that it owed suppliers up to $ 6 billion in backlog payments for products supplied, blaming the huge debt for the scarcity which pervaded the nation for weeks.
At the time of this report, dealers were said to be in a crucial meeting about the new price.
“NNPC just increased its price to N885 per litre,” one motorist in Port Harcourt posted on his X account at 10:20 am.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, has denied approving an increase in the price of petrol.
The Minister’s Nnemaka Okafor said, She said: “The Federal Government is compelled to address the outright falsehoods currently being circulated on social media, which claim that the Honourable Minister for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to inflate petroleum prices above the approved pump price.”
“The Ministry of Petroleum Resources does not, and will not, interfere in the internal decisions of NNPCL, including pricing matters. Any suggestion otherwise is not only incorrect but also reveals a profound misunderstanding of the deregulated nature of Nigeria’s petroleum sector.”
The denial is no consolation for motorists who now have to pay 50 % more for petrol, or for the commuters or travellers who would be compelled to pay more for transportation.
