Former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Tam David-West, has refuted newspaper reports, that President Muhammadu Buhari will crash the price of petrol to N40 per litre.
Prof. West said at no time did he ever made such comment, regretting that he must have been misquoted. Rather, he said, he only canvassed that some 14 items currently listed in the petrol pricing template be removed as that would help crash petrol price to N40.
The Professor of Virology said some of the 14 items included, Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) charges, transporters margin, lithering expenses among other charges, currently contained in the pricing template tend to increase the cost of petrol.
He sees it as a shameful act that Nigeria is still involved in importation of petroleum products despite having four refineries capable of meeting the energy needs of the country.
“I signed the contract for the refinery in Port Harcourt in 1985. And I can tell you that there is nothing wrong with our refineries.
“How can you co-locate refiner¬ies within the existing refineries that NNPC has tagged as scraps? For you to co-locate refineries that means the refineries still have value and can be efficient,” he said.
