Falana Tackles Kyari:  It’s illegal for you to fix petrol prices

Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has declared that only President Bola Tinubu has the capacity to name the pump price of fuel and not the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The NNPCL recently adjusted the fuel pump price across its mega filling stations across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

This was sequel to President Tinubu’s announcement during his inaugural speech that the administration would not pay a dime on petrol subsidy.

But reacting to the development on Friday, Falana condemned the NNPCL’s move, saying that only the Nigerian government had the power to fix the prices of the oil product.

Falana pointed out that since the Tinubu administration was yet to appoint a Minister of Petroleum, and as such responsibility now rested with the president

“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,” Falana said.

The human rights lawyer maintained that the argument that the new prices were dictated by market forces was flawed.