The Federal Government on Wednesday announced the appointment of Alhaji Mohammed Buba as the Chairman of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
Buba, a former Managing Director of Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), was appointed following the demand labour that government should reconstitute the board of the agency.
The Board of PPPRA which has the statutory role of determining and fixing the prices of petroleum products has not been constituted for over four years.
Labour had argued that had the board been in place, the issue of the misunderstanding in the price regulation would not have arisen.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, who made the announcement after the meeting held in his office with the Ayuba Wabba faction of Nigeria Labour Congress, said President Muhammadu Buhari, had approved the appointment.
The meeting was to review issues involved in the new pump price of premium motor spirit, also known as petrol, which had been fixed at N145 per litre.
The Board of PPPRA, which has the statutory role of determining and fixing the prices of petroleum products, has not been constituted for over four years.
The SGF said that a 16-man committee had been set up to look into the various issues that emanated from the hike in price of petrol such as the minimum wage, implementation of the N500bn palliative in the 2016 budget as well as the review of the pump price.
He said, “We just finished our meeting with the NLC and I’m happy to announce that we had a very successful meeting with an outcome that will make every Nigerian happy. First of all on the side of the government, we want to thank the NLC for their magnanimity in calling off the strike. And we thank Nigerians for being patient while the strike lasted.
“In this meeting, we have arrived at some major decisions. First of all, you will recall that before we adjourned the last meeting, we had basically decided to discuss three major issues.
“One was the issue of the minimum wage for workers, both in government and in the private sectors. And also labour had raised the issue of requirement to be involved in the implementation of half a trillion naira amount of money in the budget for palliative for Nigerians that are on the fringe of society economically.”
The SGF added that Buba had accepted the appointment.
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