Mr. Joe Effiong, Chair, NUJ, Akwa Ibom State |
The Akwa Ibom State Council of the Nigeria Union of
Journalists (NUJ) has passed a vote of no confidence on the State Task Force on
Petroleum Monitoring, an agency set up by the state government to regulate
sales and availability of petroleum products in the state.
Consequently, the union has asked the state
government to immediately disband the task force since it has outlived its
usefulness.
In a resolution taken at its April monthly congress
which took place at the NUJ Press Centre, Information Drive, Uyo, recently, the
union said it was appalling to observe that Akwa Ibom, which is ranked as the
highest producer of crude oil, has also become the costliest place to buy
petroleum products even when the task force for petroleum monitoring was still
in place.
Apart from high cost of petrol which sells for
between N105 and N120, the union said nearly all service stations in the state
including major marketers and NNPC mega stations, had gone into corporate graft
of under-dispensing their products even when they charge exorbitant prices.
The congress which was presided over by the state
council chairman, Mr. Joe Effiong, equally asked the Department of Petroleum
Resources (DPR) “to begin to live up to its responsibilities by checking
fraudulent activities of petroleum marketers,” stressing that by its deliberate
inefficiency and acquiescence, the department appears to be colluding with the
marketers to fleece the people of the state.
The union also frowned at the progressively high
electric tariffs issued to customers by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) even when it has not been able to provide electricity to the people of
the state, especially those living in Uyo, the capital city.
The journalists asked PHCN to stop further issuance
of electric bills until it was sure that its services and the bills were
directly proportional instead of the current inverse proportion.
The union sympathized with the people who are paying
exorbitantly for darkness and are further swindled by the petroleum marketers
with active connivance of the DPR and the task force.
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