The Trade Union Congress is urging for a return of petrol prices to their levels in June 2023 due to concerns about the increasing cost of living and its impact on workers and families.

This call comes after the recent hike in fuel prices by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

The TUC President made this demand during a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

He stated, "We want the price of the product to not only revert to its previous level but to go even lower."

He called on the government to intervene in the sector by providing foreign exchange to Dangote Refinery at a rate of $1/N1,000 instead of the current rate of over $1/N1,600.

"We are proposing a solution that, if implemented, would bring us back to the price we had in June last year," emphasized Osifo, highlighting that governments worldwide intervene in critical sectors and that the Federal Government should not leave the oil sector to the fluctuations of the naira.

Since May 2023, the NNPCL has raised petrol pump prices in Lagos from ₦184 to ₦998 per litre. By June 2023, the price had reached around ₦450 per litre, exacerbating the cost of living for many Nigerians.

On Thursday, the TUC leader stressed the importance of ensuring the availability, affordability, and accessibility of petrol for all Nigerians, emphasizing its essential role in daily life and economic activities, even for households without vehicles.

The trade union emphasized its demands for affordability, availability, and accessibility, stating, "We want the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), to grant all marketers licenses to lift petrol from the Dangote Refinery."

Osifo's statement underlined the need for alternative sources of refined petrol if the Dangote Refinery fails to meet Nigeria's daily demands.

"If it is not available, it is a problem. If, for example, the production from Dangote Refinery is less than 15 million litres per day, it is not sufficient. So, while efforts are being made to ramp up production from Dangote Refinery, what we are demanding is that we should look for every other means as we are ramping up production, we should source for that difference and bring it in for a while until Dangote can get to that level where the production is sufficient to get to all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. For us, that is key because it will address the issue of availability," stated the TUC boss.

On Wednesday morning, NNPC retail outlets raised the pump price of petrol in Lagos and Abuja, surprising Nigerians.

In Lagos, the price surged to ₦998 per litre, a ₦150 increase from the previous price of ₦855, prompting panic-buying and long queues at filling stations as motorists and transporters rushed to fill their tanks.

Many non-NNPCL filling stations quickly adjusted their prices in response, with some selling petrol for as high as ₦1,050 in various areas of Lagos.

In Abuja, NNPCL outlets raised their prices from ₦897 to ₦1,030 per litre.

This latest increase follows a previous hike on September 2, 2024, when prices jumped from ₦568 to ₦855, sparking public outrage and frustration among consumers.

While there has been no official statement from NNPCL regarding the latest petrol price increase, the company suggested a potential rise when it started loading petrol from the Dangote Refinery in mid-September.