According to price indications on pumps at state-run NNPC filling stations on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu’s administration appears to have increased the price of petrol from N650 to N855.
Amid the ongoing fuel shortage and crisis, petrol prices at NNPCL filling stations in Lagos and Abuja on Tuesday recorded N855 per litre, supporting claims that the price was adjusted upwards to address the country’s current exchange rate crisis and to address fuel cost issues.
Other filling stations also adjusted their prices to N897 per litre on Tuesday morning.
NNPCL spokesperson Femi Soneye told Journalists, “I’m not aware. But I’ll find out.”
Since Tinubu assumed the presidency and announced the abolition of fuel subsidy in 2023, fuel prices have fallen from N580 to N700 per litre.
However, in recent weeks, the country has been hit by severe fuel shortages, resulting in the few gas stations offering fuel selling it at exorbitant prices of over 900 naira per litre, with the black market price at over 1,000 naira.
On Thursday, the Tinubu administration issued a statement denying reports that the official fuel price increase was 1,000 naira.
“The federal government is compelled to address the outright falsehoods currently being circulated on social media, which claim that the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to inflate petroleum prices above the approved pump price,” said Nnemaka Okafor, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.
