Group backs Tinubu on plan to remove petrol subsidy, says ‘oil sector is caged’

By Abubakar Yunus Abuja

A group known as ‘the natives’ has supported the plan by Bola Tinubu, standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to remove subsidy on premium motor spirit (PMS) if he is elected president of the country.

Tinubu’s plan is contained in his manifesto tagged ‘renewed hope 2023’.

On Thursday, the former governor of Lagos, while speaking at a meeting, insisted that his administration would scrap petrol subsidy payments without regard to dissenting voices in the country.

“No matter how long you protest, we are going to remove the subsidy,” Tinubu had said.

In a statement on Saturday, Smart Edwards, president-general of the group, said the oil sector has been caged by “subsidy” and must be “unbundled”.

“Our message to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is that if he wins the forthcoming election and anytime is ready as a president, we will stand with him, it is a bold statement he must keep and if he is elected we will hold him accountable for this,” Edwards said.

“We are citizens and we know what we want is development, infrastructure, growth in a secure country, not a group of people fleecing out our resources in the name of subsidy. The truth is the subsidy must go.

“We, however, call on the Labour Unions, civil society organisations and youngsters to prepare their minds and show understanding because removal of fuel subsidy is a policy long overdue, the sector is caged and must be unbundled.

“We cannot be offering cooperation to saboteurs to arbitrarily unleash untold hardship on us as citizens year in, year out. This evil work by the saboteurs must come to an end.”