NLC Announces Nationwide Protest Over Fuel, Electricity Price Hike

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has finalised its plan to stage a nationwide rally on September 28 to protest the increase in the prices of petrol and electricity tariff.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NLC Tuesday endorsed the decision of the Central Working Committee (CWC) which resolved to commence a nationwide protest on September 28.

It is not yet clear if the meeting resolved to have a nationwide strike after the September 28 rally with officials, saying a communique will be released soon to journalists.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the CWC of the NLC last week issued a two weeks ultimatum to the government to reverse the price increase which was caused by the government’s removal of subsidy on petrol and electricity.

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Addressing journalists at the end of its meeting on Tuesday in Abuja, the NLC President said the NEC condemned the increment of the tariff and advised the federal government to urgently repair Nigeria’s refineries.

Nigeria’s four refineries are currently under repairs and produce virtually no petrol. However, even if they work optimally, they cannot produce enough petrol to meet the local demand of Africa’s largest economy.

The government has said it had to remove the subsidy as it has no resources to continue to subsidise both petrol and electricity.

The removal of the subsidy led to an increase in electricity tariff from about N30.23 to about N62.33 per kWh while the price of petrol increased from about N145 to about N161 per litre.

Details later…