Members of the pro-labour civil society groups, have warned of a repeat of the January uprising in the country over the hike in the pump price of petrol, should the government go ahead to jerk up electricity tariff from June as being speculated.

Speaking through United Action for Democracy, UAD, the civil society groups  called for a strategic plan, with operational and implementation plans on how  the government intends to improve domestic refining capacity over a given period of time, no more than 24 months, to achieve self sufficiency in domestic refining.

According to the Convener of UAD, Mr. Jaye Gaskia, said “the January Uprising and the probes at the National Assembly of the petroleum sector which it has engendered and energized; several important revelations has come to light with respect to the lack and or complete absence of coordination in the management of the economy, in spite of the fact that we have in place not only an economic team, but also a coordinating minister of the economy.

Furthermore, although several mind boggling revelations have come to light, there is as of this moment no serious indication that those implicated in the fraud will be prosecuted and punished, and looted funds recovered.”

“Although several task forces (about four so far) have been set up to tackle specific challenges that parastatals of the ministry were established to handle in the first instance, no such attempt at seriously interrogating the basis of the fraud has been undertaken.

And what is the basis of the fraud? It is the way and manner by which we quest mate daily consumption rate for PMS and other products. As long as there is no scientific, strategic and empirical way of determining this rate; it would always be possible to manipulate the figure in other to benefit importers. And this can be done simply, monitored monthly, to get monthly averages.”

“The total number of tankers transporting petroleum products ought to be known, they ought to be registered, along with their capacity. Likewise petroleum products dispensing stations/outlets ought to be ascertained and registered along with their capacities. Tankers should check in when lifting products and check out when they have offloaded the products.