Fuel price: Labour to clampdown on defiant marketers in Ekiti
The organised labour union in Ekiti State under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade
Union Congress (TUC) has vowed to resort to coercion to compel defiant marketers in the state to comply with the N86.5 per-litre price, as fixed, recently, by the Federal Government.
The labour bodies said that the hardship being witnessed in the hands of independent marketers in Ekiti is gradually becoming unbearable as “they still sell in the state between N110 and 130 per litre contrary to directive on the new pump price of N86.5 per litre as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari.”
Speaking in Ado Ekiti yesterday, the NLC Chairman in Ekiti, Com Ade Adesanmi, said the labour won’t tolerate any form of recalcitrant posture and extortion of the populace by the marketers, just because they wanted to make outrageous profit.
“We from the labour centre in Ekiti are consulting with NUPENG and other trade unions on the next line of action. President Buhari has given a directive that NNPC should sell at N86 while independent marketers at N86.5 per litre and we expect them to comply.
“But it is rather very disturbing that most of the marketers in Ekiti are still selling between N120 and N130 per litre. We consider this as an affront on the government and we won’t tolerate such.
“We are appealing to the members of the public to help the trade centres with veracious information on how to deal decisively with this people, because we won’t allow them to hold the people to ransom”, he said.
His counterpart in the TUC, Com. Odunayo Adesoye, also lamented how the marketers had refused to revert to the new price in spite that the price has slumped at the depots, describing the situation as wicked and abnormal.
“We are witnessing an abnormal situation here in Ekiti. Going by the body language of the marketers, it seems they are not ready to revert unless we apply force. We are assuring the members of the public that we will not allow this situation to continue. We deserve nothing but immediate reversal for all of us to benefit from the dividends of democracy”, he said.
