Senate will assess the petrol price hike and intervene if necessary — Sen. Akpabio

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has stated that the Senate will intervene in the current hike in the pump prices of petrol set by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) if the need arises.

Responding to a question after plenary, Senator Akpabio told Senate correspondents that he is yet to make a holistic assessment of the situation but believes that what has happened is owing to deregulation. “It simply means that you are going to stop the idea of subsidy to make sure that the monies are used for other things. So I don’t expect any increase in pump price,” he said.

He further added that he expects market forces to determine prices and that the NNPCL will no longer import petroleum products, and the more availability of the products, the cheaper the price.

He said, “So, at the beginning, it may seem to be increasing but I believe strongly that with the production from Dangote (Refinery) and then the other refineries when they become functional and the fact that it is now open to all to bring in products into the country, I can assure you that we may not even see higher pump prices. So, please let’s not dwell on the increase in pump price. We will assess it and if there is a need for us to intervene we will intervene.”