A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has appealed to President Bola Tunubu, to urgently intervene in the high cost of Liquefied Petroleum gas, popularly called cooking gas.
Oyintiloye, who appealed while speaking with newsmen yesterday in Osogbo, said the cost of cooking gas was becoming unbearable for the masses.
The APC chieftain said although the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, on February 22, announced that the federal government had asked LPG producers to stop exporting the commodity, the decision had not yielded any positive results in the reduction of the price of the item locally.
He said rising prices of the item might be a result of LPG producers secretly exporting the products.
Oyintiloye, a former member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), said that it was alarming that the cost of refiling a 12.5kg cylinder in many parts of the country now ranges between N17,500 and N18,000.
He said that as a result of these exorbitant prices, many LPG users who could not afford the price were gradually shifting to solid fuels like charcoal and firewood.
Oyintiloye said that the shift to the use of charcoal and firewood by the masses could aggravate climate change challenges and its adverse effects such as deforestation, desertification, and soil degradation that could lead to erosion.
According to him, the use of solid fuel can also lead to air pollution with carbon monoxide emitted from solid fuel, which is harmful to human beings because it binds to hemoglobin in the blood, reducing the ability of blood to carry oxygen to the body’s organs.
“This will in turn pose danger to the respiratory organ, fatigue, headaches, confusion, and dizziness to the human system due to inadequate oxygen delivery to the brain, thereby reducing the overall well-being of people.
“Human beings depend on green plants for our daily supply of oxygen while giving back carbon dioxide to the plants.
“In an attempt to substitute clean cooking gas for firewood and charcoal by cutting down green trees, this will affect human survival”, he said.
Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker however urged the president to take drastic measures to crash the price of the product in the interest of the masses and to save the country’s forest and ecosystem.
He said that while many Nigerians were struggling to look for what to eat, the means of cooking their food should not be made difficult for them again.
Oyintiloye also commended the president on his proactive steps in stabilising the naira against the United States dollar.
He said the gradual way in which the naira has maintained a steady appreciation against the United States dollar in the last few days was commendable.
He said the warning by the presidency to currency speculators to desist from unpatriotic acts against the naira was also timely and necessary.
Oyintiloye said with the patience and absolute support of the president, the economic challenges the country is going through will be a thing of the past.
