APC, PDP Differ On FG's Fuel Price Reduction

Despite Federal Government's announcement of the reduction in pump
price of petrol from N97 to N87, most fuel stations in Ondo State are
yet to reflect the new price.

PUNCH correspondent who monitored the situation in Akure, the state
capital, on Monday observed motorists still buying the product at the
old price.

Some of them appeared not to have taken the reduction in the price
seriously as they willingly paid for the product.

When PUNCH correspondent asked the fuel attendant at one of the NNPC
mega stations at Alagbaka why the station was still selling at the old
price, she said she had not been given any directive to revert to the
new price.

"Maybe tomorrow we will start selling at the new rate," she said.

Other stations operated by the major marketers such as Total and Mobil
still had their meters reading N97 per liter.

The All Progressives Congress in the state has promptly described the
cut as "a Greek gift," coming just 25 days to the general elections.

Its Chairman, Isaac Kekemeke, said the cut was also not commensurate
with the fall of the product in the international market.

"We will need the price to come down further if the government is
really sincere about the reduction in the price of the product,"
Kekemeke said.

But the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state,
Ebenezer Alabi, said it amounted to doublespeak for people to
criticize the cut in the price.

"Recently people were agitating that the price should come down in the
face of the fall in crude prices, now the President has done it and
people are criticizing because of politics.

"I think the President has done well and this will go a long way to
enhance the economy of the people and reduce hardship," he said.

Kola, a taxi driver who expressed excitement at the cut in the price,
said it would have been better if the government had reduced to N60
per liter.

He said there was no doubt that the reduction in the price is meant to
sway voters in the coming elections, since the reduction did not
actually talk with the rate of decline in the prices in the
international market.

Hamza, a marketer with Etisalat in Akure questioned the terms of the
reduction, saying the timing was suspicious.

He however said he hoped that the reduction had brought to an end the
noise about subsidy for petroleum products in the county.
--PUNCH