Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, has thrown his weight behind the claim by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on attempts to sabotage his presidential bid through naira redesign and fuel scarcity.
Tinubu had during his rally in Abeokuta on Wednesday said the current fuel crisis and the scarcity of the redesigned naira notes were artificially created to discourage people from voting for the APC and sabotage his election.
Reacting to the development, Prof. Sagay said he is surprised that President Muhammadu Buhari has not called the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele to order on his insistence that there is no going back on the January 31 deadline for the usage of the old naira notes.
“I suspect that because when people in responsible positions begin to create hardship and annoyance and anger in the population which will be directed against the government, just before an election, the effect of that is that the government is going to be blamed by the voters and they may decide out of anger to vote for another party.
“It will drive away votes from the ruling party which they will blame for the conditions and circumstances being created by these very dangerous people”.
RESIDENTS GROAN IN LAGOS AS FUEL SCARCITY PERSISTS
There seems to be no end in sight regarding scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly known as petrol in Nigeria, as long queues reappeared in different parts of the country, like Lagos.
Fuel queues in many parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, very early in the morning.
This has become a common sight in many parts of the state.
Since the latest scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol started towards the end of 2022, many wished the nightmare would go away.
But this seemed to be far from happening, as the problem lingered into the new year.
Henry, a Lagos-based entrepreneur, looks devastated.
He left his house at about 3:30 in the morning, only to meet a long queue at one of the fuel stations in Ikeja.
Just like Henry, other motorists share their bitter stories.
Even in the broad day light, the fuel queues persist, causing traffic gridlock in various parts of the state.
A quick stop at some fuel stations in Lagos, showed that only a few still maintained the approved pump price of 175 naira per litre.
With the rising fuel scarcity, comes some ripple effects on the cost of living.
Prices of food items are going up, so also is the cost of transportation, which has compounded the pains of commuters.
As Nigerians grapple with this ugly reality, they hope that the product will be made available, to lessen the stress faced by citizens at endless fuel queues.
SABOTEURS ARE HOARDING FUEL – TINUBU
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of sabotaging fuel supply in the country to blackmail the Federal Government for illicit political advantage.
Speaking in Markurdi, the Benue State capital, on Thursday, to a crowd of party supporters that graced the APC presidential campaign rally, Mr Tinubu said that while in power, the PDP administration gave fuel retail licences to their supporters and sympathisers who are now hoarding fuel to create long queues across the country and making Nigerians suffer
The former Lagos State governor added that the party of his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, is a “Poverty Development Party.”
This newspaper had reported on Wednesday what Mr Tinubu said during his campaign tour to Ogun State that the persistent fuel scarcity and inadequate new naira notes in the country were plans by saboteurs to frustrate him from being elected President in the 25 February election.
He did not, however, mention the names of the saboteurs.
Also, the APC presidential campaign council in a statement signed by Bayo Onanuga on Thursday reiterated the position of Mr Tinubu on the fuel situation, saying the saboteurs were fifth columnists working in cahoots with the PDP.
A statement signed by Abdulaziz Abdulaziz on behalf of the Tinubu Media Office on Thursday quoted the former Lagos helmsman as saying: “They met good oil prices for 16 good years, they didn’t remember gas pipelines, they are what I called saboteurs yesterday. They gave PMS licenses to their supporters and sympathisers. They are the ones who started creating fake queues. PDP, enough is enough.”
Taking a further jab at Atiku, the APC presidential candidate noted that the PDP candidate didn’t know that he broke the civil service rule in Nigeria when he said he was doing transport business when he was in Customs Service.
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