The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has linked the present fuel scarcity in the country to a December 2006 botched attempt by the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to increase prices of the products.
The NLC said the PPPRA plan failed because of its opposition to the move.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the NLC President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole disclosed that the NLC will be meeting with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) this week to get to the root of the problem.
He said: �We are getting worried about the fuel scarcity because when it started in December, there were conflicting explanations as to why it was so. There were stories that it was a seasonal rush or panic buying but people can only panic on the basis of established fear.
�We have had several Christmas� since 2003 so that of 2006 was not particularly different, then there was subsequent stories about pipeline vandalisation and whatever, but it is clear now that the fact of the matter has not been explained convincingly.
�We can confirm that in December 2006, the PPPRA leadership attempted to raise fuel prices and our representatives in the PPPRA fought against it and were able to defeat it.
�Of course you know the PPPRA includes representatives of the major marketers and independent marketers. So we fear that before coming to the meeting, some consultations must have taken place and our assumption then was that the major marketers or independent marketers in the PPPRA anticipating that there was going to be a price increase might have resorted to hoarding.
�But our people in the committee defeated this attempt to hike price and coupled with our strong letter to the Senate, House of Representatives and the Executive warning against any attempt to return to the days of tension on the eve of general elections etc, so they were able to halt the plan to increase the prices.
“So we thought that the subsequent scarcity that we noticed was as a result of hoarding by those who had expected that there was going to be a new price. As of today that is no longer a tenable excuse, it is no longer about hoarding. The panic buying that people are talking about is not also an explanation because I don�t know who has fuel storage capacity, how do we suddenly begin to panic if the situation is normal?
�I think the NNPC and the PPPRA has not explained to the Nigerian people all the facts that there is to this story,� Oshiomhole said.