PENGASSAN, NUPENG Applaud FG on Petrol Subsidy Removal

• …. Wants government to implement palliatives

By Bassey Inyang in Calabar

The Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have applauded the Federal Government’s decision to scrap subsidy on petrol.

They made their positions known on Friday at a press conference they held at the end of the joint national executive council (NEC) meeting of the PENGASSAN and NUPENG at the Transcorp Hotel in Calabar.

National President of NUPENG, Comrade Igwe Achese, who addressed journalists on behalf of both bodies, described the federal government’s   decision as a courageous policy that was long overdue.

The emphasised that the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government is a bold decision directed towards the final elimination of the corrupt activities of a small cabal that has held the nation to ransom for a decades.

“The deregulation of the sector is what we have been agitating for, for the past eight years or more. But each time we want to react, Nigerians want to live on the bedrock of lies. And that has been our problem. We have been living on the bedrock of lies. Successive governments come in, what we hear are full of lies. The oil and gas sector must have transparency and it is only when it is transparent that the nation’s economy will beginning to grown and job opportunities would be created.

“For us our clear position is that the deregulation of the sector and opening of the market is a welcome development. Someone ask me about the price whether it is not too high and I say the price is a secondary issue. The most important thing is that government has come up with a firm stand that would stop payment of subsidy into the hands of few Nigerians. That is the first thing Nigerians must appreciate. It was tried by the past administration and I know what happened. It was politicised. Some members of the political lines took over these issues as if it was their bed right to continue milking the nation’s purse.

“It is clear that we must deregulate and stop payment of subsidies into the hands of few Nigerians. We must not mortgage the nation’s economy into the hands of few Nigerians. We must open up the system and see how we can now talk about regulation.  The key fundamental issue in the issue of this price modulation is regulation. And putting in place the necessary checks and balances that can control the price environment as it is,” Achase said.

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