…N488 in Lagos; Borno- N557
Less than 48 hours after President Tinubu announced that “Subsidy is gone”, pump prices of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol, have been hiked by over 100 percent across most petrol stations in Nigeria.
The new price of a litre of PMS in petrol stations in Benin City aligns with a document being circulated on social media which put the minimum price of a litre of PMS at N488 and the highest price at N557.
Government officials, including those at the NNPC Limited insist that the country has no means to sustain the present subsidy regime, as it constitutes a clog to the wheel of progress of Nigeria.
“Today, we are waiting for them (Federal Govt) to settle up to N2.8 trillion of the NNPC’s cash flow from the subsidy regime, and we can’t continue to build this,” Mele Kyari, CEO NNPC Limited said, on Channels Television.
“We will get fierce opposition from those benefiting from the oil subsidy scam. But where there is a will, there is a way,” Senator Kashim Shettima, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, said.
While the authenticity of the document could not be verified as at the time of filing this report, The Nigerian Observer visited two petrol stations in Benin City-Buvel and NNPC. At Buvel, a litre of petrol was sold for N511 while it was N520 at the NNPC station.
The unverified document stated that a litre of petrol is to be sold at N511 in Edo State starting from May 31, 2023. This represents an increase of 102.9 percent when compared to the average price of N251.88 per litre in April in Edo State, according to the data published by the National Bureau of Statistics in April.
The document states that a litre of PMS will cost N537 on the average across the north central geopolitical zone; N550 a litre on the average in the north east; N540 a litre in north west; N520 a litre in the south east; N511 in south-south, and N500 in the south west geopolitical zone.
In the last two days in Benin City, intra city transport fares have increased by at least 50 percent. A journey which cost N200 two days ago, now attracts N300.
The Nigerian Observer interacted with a number of people who are anxiously waiting for the government’s palliatives to alleviate the problems brought about by the sudden withdrawal of subsidy.
