Anxiety has mounted across states in the South-East geo-political zone of the country following the pains occasioned by the sharp increase in the per litre price of fuel by the Federal Government.
Already, civil society groups, youths and transporters in the five states of the South-East are mobilising, with a vow to begin mass protests aimed at forcing the government to take measures to reduce the price of petrol.
The South-East leaders of the Transporters’ Association have said that the unbearable increase in the pump price of petrol was a plot by the Federal Government “to send the masses to serious hardship and their early graves”.
The spokesperson of the association, Everest Kanu, stated this shortly after an emergency meeting held in the state.
He said there is a plot to kill Nigerians with harsh welfare, adding that the next information that would get to members is to park their vehicles and not ply the roads.
According to him, “We pity our people who patronise us. Most of them are civil servants, and their salaries do not reflect this increase in price. Even businessmen and women now pay more to transport their goods, and that also affects the cost of goods such as food items “
Already, transport fares and prices of foodstuff have risen with the increase in petrol prices across the states.
Commercial bus drivers and tricycle operators have jacked up their fares, leaving passengers to groan with long trekking to distant locations.
Kanu said, “Soon, we shall go home and park our buses and tricycles and stay at home until we find a solution to this act of wickedness by the Federal Government.”
Similarly, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the apex sociopolitical youth group in the South-East geopolitical zone, has said it is alarmed over the new fuel price hike from N520 to N617 by the Federal Government headed by President Bola Tinubu. “This is gross insensitivity and wickedness of the highest order,” it said yesterday.
According to a release signed by its president, Comrade Goodluck Ibem and the Publicly Secretary Okey Nwaoru, the body said, “The recent fuel price hike has proved beyond every reasonable doubt that the previous fuel price increment from N198 to N520 was not as a result of subsidy removal, but it is a well-calculated attempt to impoverish Nigerians so that they will not have the energy and strength to challenge the Federal Government in whatever way.
“When Nigerians are still battling with hardship to settle with the previous price of N520, the same President Tinubu, within two months in office, has increased the same price of fuel to N617.
“Now that the fuel price has been increased to N617 per litre, do we have any Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani or Igbo fuel stations where his tribe men or religious members can buy it at a cheaper rate? The answer is capital No!
“It then means that we, the masses, the true Nigerian people are the ones targeted for extinction by the political class who are in power.
“We, therefore, call on the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigerian youths, all traders and businessmen/women, all trade unions and all Nigerians students in the entire nation, to come out en masse for a protest march against this evil and wickedness brought upon Nigerians by President Bola Tinubu.”
