The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris has stated that the federal government is not responsible for the latest hike in petrol price.
Daily Sun reported that Nigerians are grappling with renewed frustration exacerbated by the latest hike in petrol prices by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) and other marketers.
Speaking on the increase, Idris said NNPCL made the decision in response to prevailing circumstances in the energy industry.
He stated that the action was not based on an instruction from the federal government as the current administration can no longer fix prices of petroleum products, in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
According to Idris, since the subsidy ended in May 2023, NNPCL had only been paying differential to keep the price within the range it had been, and the company revealed that it could no longer absorb the losses.
“The differential you’re seeing is a result of different factors. One of them is the crisis in the Middle East.
“There’s volatility in the market. Therefore, the prices of petroleum products are going up, consistent with what is happening with other operators in the industry globally.
“Secondly, NNPC cannot continue to absorb these losses for Nigeria because as a limited liability company, it would be operating at a loss,” he said.