The Joint Action Front on Thursday rejected the new pump price of petrol announced by the Nigerian Government from N123 to N143.80 per liter and demanded an immediate reversal.
JAF in a statement by its Chairperson, Dr Oladipo Fashina, and Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, described the increment as a punishment to Nigerians given the prevailing economic hardship in the country due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The statement reads, “The Joint Action Front rejects the latest hike in the prices of petroleum products from the N123 pump price at most filling stations to the latest price of N143.
“This is coming against the background of serious hardship the working people and oppressed masses are going through, following the failure of the Nigerian state to provide adequate social support and access to mass testing in the face of threats to survival by the Coronavirus pandemic.
“JAF has consistently maintained that the current unjust system of neoliberal order is incapable of addressing the quest of Nigerians for free education, free healthcare, jobs for all and security of life and properties, hence our call for a sustained struggle for system change that would ensure a socio- economic arrangement that can guarantee provision of basic necessities to all.
“JAF calls on organised labour to provide leadership for resistance against the IMF inspired hike in fuel prices and urges Nigerians to prepare for consistent resistance against attacks on jobs, education, healthcare, high cost of living and the urgent necessity to mobilise towards a new political alternative.”
