The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has assured Nigerians that its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has worked out a pricing template that would immediately crash the pump price of petrol in the country.
Atiku’s move, the party said, was to ameliorate the sufferings of the common man, which it said had been imposed by three and a half years of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
The main opposition party, which also warned the national leader of the ruling party, Senator Bola Tinubu, over what it called his unguarded comments about its candidate, said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said with the current price of crude oil in the international market, the Buhari administration had no justification to keep the pump price of petrol at N145 per litre and watch Nigerians groan under the weight of high prices.
The PDP alleged that for every N145 paid for a litre of fuel, a cabal at the presidency diverted a hidden N58, which Nigerians had continued to pay since the fuel price was increased from N87 to presumably subsidised cost of N145.
The party said it had been in high level talks with top international players in the oil and gas industry, adding that its engagements had shown that the appropriate pump price of fuel in the Nigerian market, under the current subsidy regimes of the APC administration should be within the borders of N87 to N90 per litre.
The PDP said apart from failing to account for the over N1.4 trillion allegedly siphoned through sleazy oil subsidy deals, the Buhari-led government was burdened to account for the over N3.49 trillion allegedly stolen under the hidden N58 per litre of fuel on over 50 million litres daily domestic consumption estimated in the last three years.
To this end, the party urged Nigerians not to despair as its presidential candidate had already worked out a blueprint that would end sleazes, ensure appropriate pricing template and free resources to guarantee availability of product on a national pricing regime.
Cautions Tinubu over Unguarded Comments
In a related development, the PDP cautioned Tinubu not to draw himself out by joining in the smear campaign and unsavoury comments against Atiku.
It said Tinubu, as an elder, should not reduce his pedigree by engaging in indecorous utterances, which had become the trademark of his dysfunctional party.
It said despite the ludicrous disposition of APC and its leaders towards the 2019 election campaign, the repositioned PDP and its presidential candidate remained committed to its promise to focus on solutions to the myriad of problems facing the people and transform their lives for the better.
The party stressed that it was also instructive to state that a person of Tinubu’s status could conduct his political activities without recourse to indecent language that was lacking in respect for a personality like Atiku.
The PDP, therefore, cautioned Tinubu to redirect the discourse of his party to productive issues instead of unbridled resort to lies, deception, beguilement, propaganda, smear campaign and uncouth language, which Nigerians now resent.
