NALPGAM: Current cooking gas price artificial, middlemen exploiting consumers

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, NALPGAM, has said that the current hike in the price of cooking gas across the country is artificial.

The National President of the Association, Oladapo Olatunbosun, who raised the alarm on Wednesday while responding to questions on ‘The Morning Brief’, a programme on Channels Television, said middlemen are exploiting consumers.

The current scarcity is said to be caused mainly by the crisis between members of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, and the Dangote Refinery.

The strike action embarked on by the union had resulted in prices skyrocketing between about N1,700 and N2,000 per kilogram, depending on the location, and at N3,000 in some extreme cases.

According to Olatunbosun, there had been no official increment in prices. He blamed the price hike on market opportunists.

“I sympathise with Nigerians as the President of NALPGAM because we never intended to have a situation like this. I must say categorically that prices of cooking gas have not gone up. No increment has been done officially.

“What is happening is that some marketers are taking advantage of the shortage in supply and the market forces that have increased demand. They are cashing up to make good money, which is wrong.

“We frown at this as an Association, and I’m happy that by the grace of God, normalcy will return in the next few days,” he said.