According to Nigerian human rights attorney Femi Falana, SAN, only President Bola Tinubu and not the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) have the authority to set the national pump price of petrol.
The NNPCL said that the price modification was in keeping with local market conditions. Falana, in response, criticised the NNPCL’s action, asserting that only the Nigerian government had the authority to fix the product’s price.
He stated that because the current administration had not yet appointed a Minister of Petroleum, Tinubu now had that obligation.
“The NNPC has metamorphosed into a limited liability company. It is now NNPC Limited. To that extent, NNPC like Total, Exxon Mobil, and Shell operating in the oil industry, cannot announce an increase in the prices of petroleum products. That duty is vested in the government and that is what I mean (saying their action is illegal),” he said on Channels TV programme, citing a Federal High Court, Abuja judgment that says only the government can fix the prices of petroleum products.
“So, you ask the NNPCL: ‘Where have you got the powers to fix the prices of petroleum products, or the price of petrol, this time around, from N185 thereabouts to N540?’ So, how? The clarification is important.”
The human rights lawyer said that the argument that the new prices were dictated by market forces was flawed.
he said: “No, the visible market forces cannot under the Nigerian constitution and the PIA fix the prices of petroleum.
“Under the current situation, we have found ourselves – since ministers have not been appointed and the President is running the country – only the president (Tinubu) can so decide for now because you have the Price Control Act. You have the PIA.
“There is no provision in our law for market forces to determine the prices of any product in the country.”
