Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, says the Nigerian National
Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is not legally empowered to fix or adjust the
price of petrol.
Falana said the power to fix the price of petrol lies with
President Bola Tinubu since there is no substantive minister of petroleum
resources.
On May 31, NNPCL said it has adjusted the price of petrol
across its retail outlets.
Garba Deen Muhammad, the spokesperson of the corporation,
cited “market realities” as the reason for the adjustment of the price.
Filling stations across the country increased pump prices
from N185 to over N500 shortly after President Tinubu declared in his
inauguration speech that “petrol subsidy is gone”.
Reacting to the development in an interview with Channels
Television on Friday, Falana said it was against the law that NNPCL or the
so-called “invisible market forces” were fixing the price of petrol.
“The NNPC has metamorphosed into a limited liability company.
It is now NNPC Limited. To that extent, NNPCs like Total, Exxonmobil, and Shell
operating in the oil industry cannot announce increases in the prices of
petroleum products. That duty is vested in the government,” the senior advocate
of Nigerian (SAN) said.
“Nobody has the right
in Nigeria to fix the prices of petroleum products other than the government.
You have a price control act and at that time the petroleum act, now PIA.
“You ask the NNPC where have you got the power to fix the
price of petrol from N185 to N540, how? The invisible market forces cannot
under the Nigerian constitution and under the PIA fix the prices of petroleum
products.
“Under the current situation in which we have found
ourselves since ministers have not been appointed, the president is running the
country. Only the president can sọ decide the price for now. You have the price
control act, the PIA. There is no provision in our law for market forces to
determine to prices of any product in the country.”
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