The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has questioned the legal basis of a proposed production subsidy for locally refined petrol put forward by African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
According to the APC, the plan has no clear legal framework and may fail to reduce fuel prices for Nigerians.
The council made this known in a statement issued on Sunday by its spokesperson, Dele Alake, while reacting to Atiku’s proposal announced during a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
According to the APC-PCC, Atiku’s plan raises legal, financial and practical questions that need clear answers before it can be considered.
“Section 205(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 provides that wholesale and retail prices of petroleum products should be determined by free-market conditions,” the council said.
It also referred to a statement by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which said it does not fix petrol prices except under conditions allowed by law.
The APC-PCC questioned how the proposed subsidy would guarantee lower pump prices if refiners were not legally required to sell fuel at a fixed price.
“If the answer is no, he should explain how public support to refiners would guarantee lower prices at filling stations,” the council said.
It argued that, without an enforceable mechanism, refiners could receive government support while consumers continued to pay market prices.
The council also asked Atiku to explain how much the subsidy would cost and where the money would come from.
It warned that if the plan involved selling crude oil to local refineries at discounted prices, it could reduce the revenue shared by the Federal Government, state governments and local governments.
According to the APC-PCC, the proposed subsidy could cost between N17 trillion and N21 trillion annually, depending on the level of discount and the amount of crude covered.
The council also challenged Atiku to answer what it described as seven key questions, including the proposed subsidy rate, annual spending limit, source of funding, safeguards against smuggling and diversion, and whether he intends to amend the Petroleum Industry Act.
It also pointed to Atiku’s previous support for fuel subsidy removal, recalling that he had described the old subsidy system as fraudulent while campaigning in 2022.
“Atiku should explain why he now advocates restoring subsidy in another form and how his proposed arrangement would avoid the abuse, scarcity, smuggling and fiscal losses associated with the old system,” the statement said.
The APC-PCC said the Tinubu administration had instead focused on expanding Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric mass transit as alternatives to reduce transportation costs.
The council also referred to President Bola Tinubu’s recent remarks that more Nigerians would begin to experience lower transport costs from October 1 through the CNG programme.
It maintained that any intervention in the downstream petroleum sector must be lawful, transparent and properly costed, urging Atiku to publish a detailed policy document and an independent legal and fiscal analysis of his proposal.
“Until he does so, his production-subsidy plan remains an uncosted promise without a clearly identified legal or operational framework,” the APC-PCC said.
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