The Presidency has explained why President Bola Tinubu won’t intervene in the fuel price controversy between Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, President Tinubu will not get involved because both companies operate independently in a deregulated market.
Onanuga made this clear while briefing State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.
He emphasized that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) allows NNPCL to operate as a limited liability company, despite being government-owned.
He said: “The PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) field, the PMS regime has been deregulated.
“Dangote is a private company.
“NNPCL should not forget it’s a limited liability company.
“Whatever controversy both of them are having is their problem.
“They are operating, even if you go by the terms of Petroleum Industry Act, NNPCL is on its own, even though it’s owned by the Federal Government, the state government and local councils and everything, but it’s operating as a limited liability company.
“You can see what the private market has said that if think they find the NNPC or Dangote price too much for them, they will resolve to import fuel because they clear the market at the end of the day.
“It’s the consumer who benefits if a price war starts.
“If NNPC fuel price is too much, the private marketer can go to the market and bring in their fuel and sell at the price that they think is very reasonable and profitable for them.
“So my answer is that, as far as this is concerned, the government is not dabbling into this controversy.
“Dangote as a private company is working on his own.
“NNPC is a limited liability company, and it has the right to fix the price of its own and so on.”
