Femi Falana, SAN, a Nigerian human rights attorney, asserted that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) lacks the authority to set the national pump price of petrol, only President Bola Tinubu does.
Following Tinubu’s announcement of a fuel subsidy on his first day in office, SaharaReporters had revealed that the NNPCL recently altered the petrol pump price at all of its giant filling stations throughout the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
According to the NNPCL, the price modification was made in accordance with local market conditions.
Falana condemned the NNPCL’s action, claiming that only the Nigerian government has the authority to fix the product’s price, in response to the incident on Friday.
He claimed that because the current administration had not yet chosen a Minister of Petroleum, Tinubu was now in charge of that position.
A limited liability business has evolved from the NNPC. Today, it is NNPC Limited. To that extent, NNPC, which operates in the oil business alongside Total, Exxon Mobil, and Shell, is unable to announce an increase in the cost of petroleum goods. In his remarks on a Channels TV broadcast, he cited a Federal High Court of Abuja decision that stated that only the government may set the price of petroleum goods. “That duty is vested in the government, and that is what I mean (saying their action is illegal),” he said.
“So, you question the NNPCL, ‘Where have you got the powers to fix the prices of petroleum products, or the price of petrol, this time around, from N185 thereabouts to N540?'” So, how? The explanation is crucial.
The human rights attorney argued that it was fallacious to claim that market factors drove the new rates.
He responded, “No, the Nigerian Constitution and the Petroleum Industry Act do not permit the visible market forces to regulate petroleum prices.
As of right now, only the president (Tinubu) may make such decisions because of the Price Control Act because no ministers have been nominated and the president is in charge of the country. You have the PIA. “There is no provision in our law for market forces to determine the prices of any products in the country.”