The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) South-East Zone, Dr Ijeomah Arodiogbu, during an interview with The Punch, shared his thoughts on the performance of the All Progressives Congress-led government, subsidy removal, and the planned merger of opposition parties, among other issues.
While speaking with 9jacitynews reporter on Sunday morning, he supported the subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stressing that we had been subsidising the fuel consumption of other neighbouring African countries. He claimed that the Nigerian government suddenly became aware of it, and that people smuggled petroleum products to other African countries while the subsidy was paid by the Nigerian government which is not supposed to be.
He alleged that it was when the subsidy was removed that they had clear pictures of the situation
He said, “Petrol is still cheaper in Nigeria than in these neighboring countries because before, it was a thing that people were smuggling one or two trailer loads of petroleum products through the border, but after the removal of the subsidy, we have the big players now smuggling 200 trailer loads at a time.”
Further talking, he said, “After loading 200 trailer loads and giving bribes worth millions of naira, they are allowed to pass through. But in a bid to realise what they had spent on bribes, they added to the cost of the products in those countries, thereby increasing their pump price.”
