Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, has dared the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to publish the landing cost of petrol as well as the pricing template being used by the government to keep the cost of petrol at less than N640 per litre.

Shaibu said this in a statement in reaction to a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka.

Atiku’s aide said the government’s claim that the petroleum sector had been deregulated was a fat lie and that subsidy was still being paid.

He said: “The Petroleum Industry Act mandates the total deregulation of the petroleum sector. A deregulated regime has no room for price control. If the APC is saying subsidy is not back, they should explain how petrol is still being sold at less than N650 per litre when the international price of crude oil is about $94 per barrel and the exchange rate on the I&E Window is N780/$1 and N1,000/$1 on the parallel market.

“How is it that diesel which has been deregulated currently costs about N1,000 per litre while petrol is over 25% less? Let the APC explain and stop peddling lies.”

Shaibu said the APC-led government had continually admitted failure by going ahead to sack and detain some of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointees.

He said: “The same APC that praised Godwin Emefiele for eight years and deceived Nigerians with propaganda and their so-called agricultural revolution have gone ahead to sack the same Emefiele and detain him for four months.

“The same APC that claimed to have fought corruption have now gone ahead to detain the man in charge of the anti-corruption war, Abdulrasheed Bawa, for four months. You can see that these people are nothing but barefaced liars and deceivers.

“Tinubu claimed he wanted to cut the cost of governance and yet appointed 48 ministers out of which 10 are from his region. Yet the APC claims he is running a fair administration. This is laughable. Adams Oshiomhole even said last month that Tinubu inherited a bad situation. How can a maggot criticise the fly that gave birth to it?”

Atiku’s aide asked the APC to do more on governance rather than propaganda, adding that the patience of Nigerians was already running out.

“Wale Edun said recently that the last time Nigeria’s economy did well was 10 years ago. That is an admission of the failure that the APC represents. Under the watch of that blood-sucking party, poverty has reached unimaginable heights. Nigeria has even lost its crown as the largest producer of oil in Africa. What a shame,” Shaibu said.

He said Tinubu ought to apologise to Nigerians for lying about a proposed meeting with United States President Joe Biden instead of trying to offer lame excuses.

“So, a three-minute ‘meet and greet’ on the sidelines of the G20 summit in India is what the APC is now describing as a ‘meeting of Biden and Tinubu’? This is indeed shameful. The statement from the Presidency said the meeting would take place on the sidelines of UNGA in New York.

“It is obvious the so-called meeting only existed in the minds of Tinubu and his paid writers. He left UNGA empty-handed and travelled to Paris without even informing Nigerians of his whereabouts.” informing Nigerians of his whereabouts.

What a joke

“More worrisome is the interception of 9 sacks 50kg each of explosive materials (fertilizer, device cables and superpower90 chemicals). We all know the security implication if these explosives components get to their destination unchecked.

“It may interest you to know that Superpower 90 is designed for priming applications and as a column explosive in surface and underground mining and general blasting. The high detonation velocity and the robust nature of Superpower 90 make it an ideal primer for the initiation of column charge. Let’s us not just imagine if dynamites and landmines are detonated using these items“, he said.

He seized the opportunity to congratulate the Ag. Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi MFR on his appointment to oversee the affairs of the service describing it as “well deserved considering his pedigree, dedication and commitment to the service”.

“We will all make sure he succeeds as his leadership style has started yielding positive results in our operations. I thank the Ag. Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi MFR, and the entire Management Team of the Nigeria Customs Service for their efforts so far in providing needed incentives and necessary logistics that aided our performance. To my dear colleagues, Customs Intelligence Unit, Customs Police, I must commend your prompt intelligence sharing, resilience and tenacity that brought about this stride “, he added.

He called on journalists to join the Nigeria Customs Service in the advocacy campaign against the hazard of smuggling to the Nation’s economy, and to all well-meaning Nigerians to support the service with necessary intelligence and information that could assist the Service nip in the bud smuggling in the interest of our fatherland.

The Comptroller, however, warned all economic saboteurs who plan to use the ember period for their nefarious acts to have a rethink as the Service will make sure they count their losses adding that “no amount of distraction will stop us from carrying out our statutory responsibilities not even in the face of attacks we encountered this month by some sponsored elements”. (Daily Sun)

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