The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the National Assembly to set up a committee to investigate the corrupt practices in the oil subsidy regime in the last five years so as to ensure transparent deregulation in the industry.
According to a statement on Monday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, the party also promises to monitor the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.
He added that market forces be truly allowed to determine the prices of petroleum products, insisting that the appropriate price for the premium motor spirit (PMS) in Nigeria should be N70 per litre.
Ologbbondiyan noted that the PDP it is studying the ongoing procedures by the Federal Government on the deregulation process to ensure that it is not manipulated against the interest of the ordinary Nigerians.
The PD also calls on the Federal Government to immediately recover the over N14 trillion exposed to have been stolen in the oil sector in the last five years of the APC-led administration, and direct the same to the development of the oil and gas sector.
“As a party, our position on the pump price of fuel in our country has not changed. Nigerians are aware of our consistent support for the deregulation of the downstream to allow market forces to guide pricing activities.
“Our position remains that if market forces are truly allowed to determine the price of petroleum products in our country, Nigerians will not be buying fuel at a price beyond N70 per litre,” he said.
Ologbondiyan directed the attention of Nigerians to the fact the President Muhammadu Buhari had declared fuel subsidy a fraud before he became the President of the country.
He alleged that there have been overcharges on fuel prices in the past five years, particularly since the fall in oil prices in the international market.
The PDP’s spokesperson called on the federal government to declare and surrender the proceeds of the overcharges for the benefit of Nigerians and made the product available to Nigerians at affordable prices.
He enjoined the government not to use the deregulation as a pretence to sweep the issue of overcharge and subsidy fraud under the carpet.
According to him, “government should also recover N14 trillion stolen in the oil sector in the last five years and use it to revamp the country’s petroleum refineries in order to push prices further down and create jobs and employment opportunities.
The party assured that it would continue to study the procedures used by the federal government to deregulate the sector to ensure that Nigerians were not shortchanged.
