On Friday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) demanded full disclosure of the subsidy templates, including the cost of importing petroleum goods into the country, in order to justify the additional N2.557 trillion subsidy request. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Debo Ologunagba, revealed this in a statement on Friday.
According to him, the party is urging the National Assembly to join the people in rejecting the “scandalous N2.557 trillion increment for gasoline subsidy” at this critical time, as doing so would be a tremendous and unforgivable injustice to Nigerians.
He said the main opposition party was shocked by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s brazen move to hide behind fuel subsidies in order to pilfer and waste N3 trillion.
According to him, while the PDP is not opposed to subsidizing petroleum products for Nigerians, the party rejects the APC-led government’s plan to secretly funnel trillions of naira into the pockets of corrupt APC leaders and their cronies in government ahead of the party’s shameful exit in 2023 by using a heavily-padded fuel subsidy claim.
He claimed that the APC government could not justify the planned increase in fuel subsidies in the face of undeniable evidence of a slowing economy and consequent decrease in petroleum product consumption in Nigeria, owing largely to the APC’s rudderless, irresponsible, and insensitive economic policies, as well as the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The PDP also stated that it has information on how corrupt APC leaders pushed for an additional N2.557 trillion to be added to the N443 billion already endorsed for fuel subsidies in the 2022 budget in order to create a surplus as a slush fund for APC leaders to share and use to rig the 2023 elections.
“The PDP, standing with the Nigerian people, vehemently rejects the bandying of incoherent, unsubstantiated and heavily doctored figures by the APC government in its desperate lies on domestic consumption and landing costs,” part of the statement read.
The statement asked the APC to give specifics of importation prices to Nigerians, claiming that no legitimate pricing template could sustain such a heinous increase in gasoline subsidies above the appropriate pricing, which experts believe cannot exceed N500 billion.
“Nigerians have already noted that the proposed increase is consistent with APC’s typical padding of fuel subsidy ahead of every election cycle. It is even more disturbing that the proposed increase is to be funded through external borrowings, which will further impoverish Nigerians, mortgage the future of our nation and burden future generations of Nigerians just to finance the insatiable greed of APC leaders,” Ologunagba added.
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