The Peoples Democratic Party on Friday told the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government that it will be inhuman to contemplate a hike in the price of petrol.
The party described the present N145 per litre as exorbitant.
It said an increase would not only be criminal but inhuman and completely unacceptable.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodinyan, the party said investigations revealed that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has been lying to Nigerians on oil related issues, using the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to bandy figures with intentions to arrive at government’s plan to increase the price of fuel.
The party said the lingering fuel crisis and its attendant high cost were a subtle ploy by the ruling party to justify another increment in the pump price of petrol.
The statement further said the government has completely become immune to the sufferings of Nigerians to the extent that it no longer cares if it inflicts more pains on them.
It said: “Any increase in fuel pump price would be an indirect tax on Nigerians to fund APC interests and considering the pains Nigerians have suffered under this inept and unfeeling government, this intended hike will be callous.
“It is now clear to all that this APC- controlled government will never act in the interest of Nigerians. All the actions and policies of APC, in their close to three years in office, have been targeted against Nigerians and there are no signals that they will change.
“We therefore urge Nigerians to reject this ploy to raise the prices of petroleum products even as they gear towards using the next election to end the misrule of the APC.”