The Nigeria Labour Congress and Civil Society Organisations have said the N935/litre of petrol price is high.

Labour was reacting to Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s partnership with MRS while announcing a reduction in petrol price to N935/litre.

Before the announcement, the commodity sold for over N1,030/litre in Lagos and environs, while it cost more than N1,060/litre in Abuja and Northern states.

Recall that on Sunday, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said petrol was going to sell at N935/litre beginning from Monday based on the latest arrangement with the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

IPMAN’s National President, Maigandi Garima, said the reduction in Dangote refinery’s ex-depot price for petrol and the uniform arrangement being put in place, would enable marketers to sell at N935 in their outlets nationwide, incurring a cost of N36 on logistics.

But the announcement did not excite the labour union and CSOs, as they insisted on Monday that the cost of petrol should drop further.

Speaking with The PUNCH, a senior official of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Chris Onyeka, rejected any applause for the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited over the recent reduction in the pump price of petrol.

He argued that the current pricing mechanism does not reflect the true cost of the commodity.

“Do you want us to clap for them? How can we be okay with a price of N935/litre of PMS? This is not the right price for PMS. You cannot base the price on imported products when we have refining capacity in Nigeria,” he said.

He argued that the costs embedded in the current pricing framework—including foreign labour, freight charges, insurance, logistics, and profits accrued abroad—unfairly burden Nigerians.

“Products are refined in Nigeria, yet the price you give Nigerians is based on imported products. Why should we applaud that? It is akin to someone stealing your money and returning only part of it, then expecting you to clap. We cannot applaud this,” he stated.

Onyeka stressed that the only way to ascertain the correct price of PMS is by determining the actual cost of refining it domestically.

“We need to know how much it costs the NNPC to refine a litre of PMS in our local refineries, such as the Port Harcourt refinery. That is the price Nigerians should be paying,” he emphasised.

He called on the government to prioritise the welfare of Nigerians by ensuring that fuel pricing aligns with local realities.

“The NLC’s position underscores growing discontent among Nigerians over the rising cost of living, with fuel prices being a major contributor to inflation and economic hardship,” he stated.

The Chairman, Centre for Accountability and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said the reduced price of N935/litre was still expensive and unsatisfactory, noting that the government and private business could still give out free petrol to citizens.

“So, it’s unfortunate that we are still talking about over N900 and they want us to jump up and rejoice for that. That is not satisfactory. They should just let us see the breakdown of their production cost and why it’s still there. I mean, there are countries like Libya under Gaddafi that gave out PMS for free and they didn’t run anything at any loss. So, I believe that it can still go further down,” he said.

The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Ibrahim Rafsanjani, commended the reduction of fuel prices by the NNPC and Dangote, but said the government could still reduce the price.

“Because if a private company can reduce the price and it still makes profit, we wonder why government-owned enterprises cannot really pity its citizens,” he said.