THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said it would battle the move to increase fuel price as it did before to show its commitment to the welfare of Nigerian workers and the masses.
Besides its decision to continue to oppose fuel price increase, General Secretary of NLC, Comrade John Odah, said the NLC would rally its civil society allies to resist any price increase, now or in the future.
He said: �In furtherance of the commitment of NLC to the welfare of our constituency and the generality of the Nigerian masses, we will continue to oppose the imposition of harsh fuel prices. The NLC will continue to work with our civil society allies to resist any attempt to add to the hardship of the people through arbitrary fuel price increase.�
He described the plan as a �renewed and repeated threats� by the Federal Government to increase the prices of petroleum products at the end of the extended moratorium.
Emphasising the position of the congress on the issue, Comrade Odah said: �The NLC remains opposed to any increase in the prices of petroleum products. At the moment, fuel prices in Nigeria are unbearable for the poor, working people, industry operators and other productive players in the economy. Our fuel prices are among the highest in OPEC.
�We are at pains to understand why the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, should reduce a serious issue to simple-minded declarations. Only the minister probably believes that inflicting higher fuel prices would not hurt the poor and that the government is merely subsidising the rich car-owners.
�The whole essence of the NLC�s opposition to fuel price increases is its negative impact on the people, especially the poor who constitute more than 70 per cent of the population.