FG Reacts to Reports of Planned Petrol Price Hike to N1,000 per Litre

The Federal Government has firmly denied recent reports circulating on social media that suggest a directive was issued by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, instructing the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to increase the price of petrol to N1,000 per litre.

In an official statement released on Tuesday, Nneamaka Okafor, the Special Adviser to the minister, dismissed the reports as entirely false, labeling them as baseless and a deliberate attempt to stir public unrest. The statement emphasized that the government has not, at any point, interfered with petroleum pricing decisions made by the NNPCL.

“There has never been a time when the Federal Government intervened in NNPC’s pricing decisions, let alone issued a directive to raise prices,” the statement read. Okafor urged the public to disregard the claims, highlighting that the reports were fabricated to create confusion and distrust within the oil sector.

The statement also challenged those behind the reports to provide any evidence, whether in the form of written documents, audio, or video recordings, to substantiate their claims, stressing that no such evidence exists.

Okafor further clarified that the NNPCL operates as an independent entity under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources does not interfere in its internal decisions, including those related to pricing. The deregulation of Nigeria’s petroleum sector means that the NNPCL operates autonomously, without directives from the government.

Additionally, Minister Lokpobiri addressed the ongoing challenges of fuel smuggling and pipeline vandalism, noting that these issues persist partly due to the price discrepancies between Nigeria and neighboring countries. He pointed out that the NNPCL’s pricing strategies are independent of government influence, a reality that some stakeholders have yet to fully grasp since the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was enacted in 2021, which transformed NNPC into a limited liability company.