The congress, which said this will put an end to such illicit act, noted that the incessant scarcity of petroleum products across the country was a deliberate attempt by some government functionaries to compel Nigerians to accept the proposed deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry.
Abdulwahed Omar, NLC president stated this in a statement issued in Abuja, where he urged Jonathan to call Rilwanu Lukman, minister of petroleum resources, to order over his recent comment that “fuel scarcity will persist unless the downstream sector of the petroleum industry is deregulated.”
Omar also warned that the minister’s statement was “pre-emptive of the ongoing dialogue between government and labour on the deregulation policy”, adding that the statement is “fallacious”.
The NLC boss, who expressed dismay over the minister’s position, argued that “this comment confirms the position of congress that the scarcity being witnessed since last year is created deliberately to force Nigerians to accept deregulation.”