TheCable

The federal government and the organised labour will reconvene on February 22 to deliberate on reports submitted by the bipartite technical committees on fuel price and electricity tariff.

In September 2020, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had called for a nationwide strike to protest against the hike in petrol price and electricity tariff.

The industrial action was later suspended after the unions brokered an agreement with the government and a technical committee comprising labour leaders, government agencies and ministries was set up to evaluate the electricity tariff hike.

Similarly, in December 2020, a technical committee on premium motor spirit (PMS) pricing framework was established to fashion out a mechanism to monitor and stabilise petrol pump price.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Monday, Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, explained that the organised labour requested for some time to subject the report on petrol pricing to their organs for further investigation.

“It is a technical report; so, they needed further investigation of the report by their own technical research team. The technical Committee on electricity tariff has not finished. We expect the report in a week’s time. So, cogently, we are reconvening on 22nd of this month to take both reports,” Ngige said.

The labour minister noted that the meeting received and adopted the report of the technical committee on premium motor spirit (PMS) pricing framework.

The report was presented by Onochie Anyaoku, chairman of technical committee on PMS pricing, also a former executive director, refining and petrochemicals, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Anyaoku said the report is 100 percent owned by the technical committee and has been endorsed by all its members.