Fuel marketers have declared that their filling stations will stop selling petrol should the Federal Government try to enforce price control.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chinedu Ukadike, issued the warning on Tuesday during an interview with our correspondent.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, warned on Monday that the government would not tolerate profiteering and other practices that exploit fuel consumers. Lokpobiri said that, though the era of government-fixed petrol prices was over, deregulation did not mean regulators should abdicate their responsibility to protect consumers.
The minister spoke in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 2026 General Counsel and Legal Advisers Forum organised by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
His remarks came amid renewed public concerns over the failure of refiners and importers to lower the gantry prices of petroleum products even as crude prices fell from a high of $120 during the US-Iran war to as low as $72 a barrel.
On Sunday, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission expressed concern over what it described as possible consumer exploitation in the downstream petroleum sector following the failure of fuel prices to decline significantly despite the sharp drop in global crude oil prices.
During the Monday engagement, the oil minister told the NMDPRA to ensure Nigerians are not exploited by fuel marketers. “As part of the requirements of deregulation, prices have to be determined by market forces. The NMDPRA has a unique responsibility, compounded by the PIA, to ensure not only that products are available but also that unnecessary profiteering is stopped.
