The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Christmas day debunked reports that the Federal Government was contemplating increment in pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). The Vice President who cleared the air while addressing newsmen in Lagos after inspecting fuel situations attributed the long queue at petrol stations to panic buying and hoarding of petroleum products by marketers. He assured that the Government was working round the clock to address the situation.
"We are certainly not expecting to increase oil (fuel ) prices at all; the government has absolutely no intention of increasing fuel prices and that’s it. We have been here holding a meeting with major oil marketers and as you see everyone is at work trying to ensure that the petrol queues are cleared.
We are trying to look at some of the issues and what needs to be done to ensure that things move very quickly. Just yesterday, Mr. President tried to see how exactly he could really work on the problems that we are experiencing and how to very quickly clear up the queues and ensure that everyone is able to have a happy holiday; that’s exactly why we are here today.
The GMD of the NNPC is up in Abuja and I ’m here with the minister (of State for Petroleum Resources) trying to take a look at what the problems of the marketers may be and also what other issues there may be getting the products to petrol stations across the country. We had a very good meeting and we hope that in the next couple of days , we will be able to resolve the petrol queues and l hope this rather sad episode come to an end as quickly as possible.
So clearly, what has happened here is that on account of some of the short deliveries that we have experienced, panic buying and hoardings in different places started. So, those are largely the issues. So we are also trying to ensure that these sorts of disruptions won’t happen in the future and that’s one of the reasons why we are spending a bit of time to look at some of the issues.”
