The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has warned President Goodluck Jonathan against increasing the price of petrol in the country.
Reacting to President Jonathan’s statement that petrol price would soon go up, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition, Debo Adeniran, warned that the federal government should be wary of heating up the polity with any careless move, because the nation is sitting on the keg of gunpowder.
“President Goodluck Jonathan should desist from increasing the tempo of the polity unnecessarily. We all saw what the nation witnessed in January 2012 when the FG first took this step. The loss of lives and properties is enough to teach any reasonable government morals that Nigerians would resist any hike in the price of petrol vehemently. The masses are groaning under the economic hardship created by the hike in the price of the product from N65 to N97 early this year. The imminent crisis that will greet another hike is better imagined,” Comrade Adeniran said.
The anti-corruption crusader called on President Goodluck to occupy himself with the substantive issue, which is ridding the oil sector of corrupt practices and recovering our common patrimony from those who short-changed the nation to the tune of trillions of Naira.
“The President should first map out ways to frontally combat the staggering corruption that is pervasive in our oil industry,” he said, stressing that corruption in the oil sector must be dealt with before any discussion of total subsidy removal.
“It is not only unreasonable, but sheer wickedness, for a government that some people have defrauded trillions of Naira in the name of subsidy payments with other underhand dealing, and is yet to recover that, to now place the brunt on the masses. President Jonathan must decisively deal with all pending reports and cases that have to do with the petroleum sector and cleanse it of the pervasive sleaze before talking of total subsidy removal,” Adeniran said.