The Joint Action Front (JAF) has kicked off a mass mobilisation against the recent increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and electricity tariff in Nigeria.
JAF, which comprises civil society organisations (CSOs), the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), and Trade Union Congress (TUC), protested in Lagos, Osun, and Oyo on 16 September.
Petrol prices rose from about N145 per litre to about N160 per litre across Nigeria, with the federal government saying that the increase was due to the deregulation of the downstream sector and the removal of subsidy on petrol.
Also, the federal government approved the official implementation of cost-reflective tariffs for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) effective from 01 September, 2020.
In Lagos, southwest Nigeria, it was learnt that members of the group converged on the office of the NLC at Yaba, from where they moved to Itire and its environs, sensitising traders and residents.
However, it was gathered that the protest was disrupted at Ojuelegba, as the group was confronted by police operatives tied to the Area C Police Command.
The policemen were reported to have ordered them into their about seven operational vans.
‘It was a peaceful protest with our members distributing pamphlets, which were well articulated, and our placards were well written’, the Punch quoted former National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Malachy Ugwummadu, as saying.
‘While we were talking with the policemen, we saw there was another reinforcement with about 85 policemen, almost outnumbering us.
‘At a point, they picked three of our leaders. I said we would not allow them take them away. We all moved into their vans, and overwhelmed them’.
In Ibadan, the capital of another southwestern state, Oyo, the protesters called for immediate reversal of the pump price and electricity tariff.
‘The mass mobilisation signifies the beginning of a nationwide protest which will put all activities in the country to a standstill if our demands are not met’, the JAF Coordinator in Oyo, Professor Ademola Aremu, told journalists.
Similarly, in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, the protesters, who displayed a large banner containing their demands, called on the federal government to immediately reverse the pump price and electricity tariff.
The federal government, according to spokesperson for President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Sheh, removed subsidy on petrol and electricity to ‘stop the mismanagement of taxpayer money’ and ‘eliminate corruption associated with subsidies’.
‘There is nothing new in the fact that the country is today fighting multiple challenges along with Covid-19, including low earnings, near-collapse of the oil market, floods, threats of terrorism and banditry but the challenges notwithstanding, a good government must take decisions for the people’s good’, Shehu had said in a statement.
The government had also disclosed that poor and vulnerable Nigerians will not be experiencing any electricity tariff increase, asking the general public and stakeholders in the power sector to disregard any report of an arbitrary tariff increase.
Source: Punch
Photo source: Premium Times
