National Executive Council, NEC, will today consider the adoption of a report by its ad hoc committee on fuel subsidy removal and the increase of petrol price to N302 per litre.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is expected to preside over the meeting, to be attended by all the governors and other federal officials.
The Trade Union Congress will on Thursday also take a position on the planned removal of the fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.
The TUC Deputy Secretary, Nuhu Toro, told newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, that the congress would hold a meeting over the subsidy issue.
Also speaking, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria opposed the plan by the Federal Government to remove the fuel subsidy and increase the pump price.
The ASCSN President, Tommy Okon, said his association and Nigerians would resist the move.
He said, “Of course, Nigerians are resting assured that they would be defended by our union; that’s why we are here and that’s why we are saying it is a wrong decision to take at this time when workers’ wages are still stagnant. No increase, they have not made any provision.
“The transport system has not been looked into. So, you just wake up and say you are removing fuel subsidies. Where in other climes has this been done? Even when you give the subsidy, is it not the wealthy few that still hijacked it? The fight is not about workers, it is what Nigerians must rise and resist.”
Okon stated that the union had already taken a position on the issue, insisting that “no sane government should at this point of economic harshness decide to impoverish the people.”
There have been fears of likely fuel price increase since the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced the plan to remove petrol subsidy last June.
According to an online news medium, reported on Wednesday that a committee of the National Economic Council had recommended that petrol should be sold at N302 per litre from February when the government would cease to subsidize the petroleum products in the country.
The report explained that NEC made the recommendations last November. The recommendations were reportedly put forward by the NEC ad-hoc committee interfacing with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on the appropriate pricing of PMS in Nigeria.
Punch/Taiwo Akinola
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