Fuel price increase ill-advised, unpardonable ― CUPP

Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has strongly condemned the sudden increase in prices of petroleum products especially the premium motor spirit also known as petrol, describing the increase at this point in time as not only ill-advised but also reprehensible and unpardonable.

The coalition urged the Buhari government to immediately revert the pump price of a litre of petrol to either the N123.00 that it was reduced to during the COVID-19 lockdown or, better still, make it N100.00 flat per litre.

According to CUPP, doing this would cushion the combined negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic and the badly managed economy of the country.

CUPP gave this condemnation on Thursday in a release signed by its Co-Spokesman, Comrade Mark Adebayo, even as it further described the increase as “insensitive and wicked infliction of pains on Nigerians who are yet to recover from the debilitating effects of COVID-19 pandemic which the present government did next to nothing to assuage the suffering masses and small scale businesses.”

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CUPP, while condemning the increase, said the Muhammadu Buhari- led administration has again demonstrated that it lacked empathy for the suffering of the citizens under an economy that had been so terribly mismanaged due to its obvious incompetence and humongous corruption.

“His government has demonstrated, time and again, that it lacks empathy for the suffering of the citizens under an economy that has been so terribly mismanaged due to its obvious incompetence and humongous corruption.

“We advise the government to immediately revert to either the N123.00 that it was reduced to during the lockdown or, better still, make it N100.00 flat which would cushion the combined negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic and the badly managed economy of the country.

“Such an increase at this time is not only ill-advised but also reprehensible and unpardonable. What the government should do is find a solution to the burgeoning economic crises of the country and not aggravate an already desperate situation for the mass of Nigerians. It is wicked ambush against Nigerians,” CUPP said.

The coalition warned that the immediate fallouts of what it described as “ill-timed policy” would be increases in the prices of food and transportation accompanied by inevitable and punitive inflation, noting that it was clear that the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led Federal Government had run out of ideas on how to fix this country and, therefore, better for Nigerians to vote it out, come 2023.

CUPP said the call was a patriotic assignment to which all Nigerians must be committed in order that the country would not be run asunder by incompetence, lack of vision and anti-people policies as being executed by the current APC government.

“The immediate fallouts of this ill-timed policy would be increases in the prices of food and transportation accompanied by inevitable and punitive inflation. It is clear that this government has run out of ideas on how to fix this country and it’s better for Nigerians to get ready to vote out this failed government in 2023.

“That is a patriotic assignment to which all Nigerians must be committed so that the country would not be run asunder by incompetence, lack of vision and anti-people policies as being executed by the current APC government,” the coalition said.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE