BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
AS rumour mill continues to have it that the Federal Government is completing full deregulation of the the downstream sector of the petroleum industry which would automatically translate into higher pump price of fuel, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has warned the government not to dare Nigerians with such obnoxious policy.

President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwahhed Omar, said though officially labour was not aware of the plans, but insisted that it would be tragic should government contemplate on further increase in the pump price of fuel when the report of the subsidy probe which vindicated labour long argument that the fuel subsidy regime was fraud infested had not been implemented.

The NLC president who said that labour would not leave anything to chance disclosed that officials of the organisation would meet to take a strong resolution that not until all issues relating to fraud in the fuel subsidy regime were thoroughly investigated and culprits brought to book accordingly, no action should be taken on deregulation of the downstream or fuel price increase.

According to him”We have not heard it officially from any quarters, but ordinarily, if that is the case, the only thing I will say is that maybe government is daring Nigerians. This is the same thing we have said even before the increase in the fuel price in January.

We said, look, there is so much fraud in the subsidy regime, go and investigate, by the time you finish investigation, you would have discovered that what is going on in the name of subsidy is so meagre that even government can live with it. The rest and the bulk of the money is going into private pockets.

“We have been thoroughly vindicated by the fuel subsidy probe committee report that over N1.8 trillion spent in the name of subsidy was a fluke whereas what government provided in 2011 budget as money for subsidy was only about N260 billion.

So, you see, it is the issue of the fraud. Now, the subsidy fraud has just been reported, you have not dealt with it and you think the best way of dealing with it is to further increase the pump price. It is up to Nigerians to decide whether they can take it or not.”

”NLC members are Nigerians and it is up to Nigerians whether they will take this insult. To me, it is an insult that you discovered a fraud of monumental dimension, you are not addressing it and now you are saying the best thing is, let us hit at the Nigerian people and allow that fraud to go Scot free. Maybe Nigerian labour would very soon take a resolution that nobody should contemplate any further increase in the pump price of fuel, unless the issue of this subsidy fraud that is on the ground is thoroughly scrutinized and those indicted conclusively prosecuted accordingly.”

Before the January increase, there were insinuations from highly placed government officials that they should forget about labour, after all, how many are they.

They are less than six million and their agitation is about two or three days and they will fizzle away and life continues.

But they saw what happened. It is about Nigerians. Of course, labour provided the leadership and labour will always provide the leadership. When the time comes, labour is always ready to provide such leadership.”