A legal practitioner, Kabir Akingbolu has yesterday prayed a Federal High Court in Lagos to declare that President Muhammadu Buhari has breached his oath of office by allegedly failing to address the lingering fuel scarcity in the country.
Akingbolu urged the court to issue an order directing the President to urgently fix the nation’s refineries in order to meet the petroleum products demand of the entire Nigerian masses.
He claimed that the failure of the President to resolve the fuel scarcity in the nation since his assumption of office on May 29, 2015 was a violation of “the clear and unambiguous provisions of Section 130 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.”
In the affidavit filed in support of the suit, Akingbogun, who joined the Attorney General of the Federation as the second respondent in the suit, noted that though the official price for a litre of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, was N87, most petrol stations, however, sell for about N110 and above under Buhari’s watch.
While arguing that the scarcity and the exorbitant price at which PMS was being sold had occasioned untold hardships on the citizenry, he said, “The price of PMS is now no longer at N87 per litre at most petrol stations but N110 and above in the country, creating untold hardship on the citizenry as well as the plaintiff who voted for the first defendant.
“I know as a fact that very few petrol stations still sell at N87 per litre and it is like going to a battlefield before the citizens can get petroleum products.
“I know as a fact that the refineries have deliberately been ignored and left unfixed by the past administrations in Nigeria for their selfish interest and the current President might follow suit if not properly cautioned, hence the commencement of this suit.
“If the refineries are fixed and are working in perfect condition, the situation of scarcity of petroleum products would come to an end, and the issue of spending huge amounts in the exportation of crude oil to be refined outside the country and subsequently imported back in, would come to an end,” the lawyer stated.
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