The president of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALPGM), Mr Olatunbosun Oladapo, has accused terminal operators of disrupting appropriate pricing of Liquified Petroleum Gas(LPG) known as cooking gas.
Oladapo said if operators continue to adjust the price, then, Nigerians would soon see the price of 12.5kg of LPG moving up to N18,000 by December.
He, therefore, called on the federal government to check the activities of terminal owners and gas retailers.
Oladapo said, there has been a sudden increment from between N9 million and N10 million per 20 metric tons to N14 million per 20 metric tons recently.
He said, if the federal government doesn’t intervene, the price of gas could “potentially reach N18 million per metric ton by December.
“There is a ridiculous hike in gas prices going on right now, and I am afraid that if the Federal Government does not step in to checkmate the activities of these terminal owners, the price could reach as high as N18m per metric ton by December. This means that a 12.5kg could go as high as N18,000.
”Terminal owners are hiding under the guise of high foreign exchange to increase the price to further increase the suffering of the masses.
“Now, the ordinary man would not be able to buy gas. How many minimum wage earners can afford gas now? Everyone is turning to firewood and charcoal. The surprising thing was that they visited President Tinubu last week, and promised to work together with his administration to make life better.
“Now they have come back and started doing something else. Where are all the palliatives and buses they promised to donate? We have not seen anything.”
The NALPGM president had, in August, hinted that Nigerians may pay higher for cooking gas from mid-August 2023.
He attributed the reasons for the expected increase to rising international prices, high tax rates, high prices of vessels, forex scarcity, and Naira devaluation.
