It said halting the plan to remove fuel subsidy should be pending when all the refineries in the country were working.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by its president, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi, the group warned that scrapping fuel subsidy without locally-produced fuel would further escalate inflation, endanger industries and increase the hardship Nigerians already suffered.

OPC also demanded that the government must equally tame the galloping prices of cooking gas, domestic kerosine and aviation fuel.

Said he: “Many households and families are suffering due to the high cost of cooking gas and domestic kerosine. They want the government to alleviate their sufferings by ensuring that the price of gas, for example, returns to N256/kg at most, instead of the current astronomical price of N850/kg.”

Lamenting that the price of diesel (AGO) has also skyrocketed from N190 to N810, Afolabi said this had a negative effect on industries and transportation with attendant high cost of goods and services.

READ ALSO: OPC to FG: End ASUU strike now, invest more in education of our youths

According to the OPC president, lower fuel price would reduce inflation, restore the health of the devalued Naira and increase the purchasing power of citizens, with the overall boosting of the economy.

Challenging the government to invest in local production of fuel instead of importation, Afolabi said Buhari must see to the revamping of the country’s four refineries and encourage the abundant establishment of functional modular refineries.

The OPC president said: “What is happening today was not what General Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians when he was campaigning in 2014. His promise to change the fuel situation by revamping the four refineries was attractive to Nigerians who were dissatisfied with the high cost of imported fuel. Nigerians voted for change. Now the situation is even worse.

“How do you explain that Buhari called fuel subsidy of N306.92 billion a scam in 2015, but under him fuel subsidy rose to N1.43 trillion in 2021 and N4 trillion in 2022?

“By running the economy on imported fuel these past seven years, the Buhari government has sacrificed Nigerians to the unchained greed of an evil cabal that has deliberately paralysed local refining. Clearly, no country will do well under such a system. Time has come to say, ‘Enough is Enough.’

“President Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum, lacks any excuse to import petroleum products at all. Nigeria is an oil-producing country. Nigerians are blessed with petroleum resources and they deserve to enjoy the benefits of this God-given gift.”

Recalling that when Buhari took over in 2015, petrol sold for N87 at the fuel pump, Afolabi said today the price has increased to N190.

OPC equally faulted the high price of aviation fuel, saying the situation had increased the cost of flight tickets and made travelling by air expensive, unattractive and nightmarish.

Afolabi said: “It is unreasonable that just a few months back aviation fuel sold for N190 and today it has increased to N880. Yet the government allows the situation to continue, without doing anything to bring this alarming situation under control. This is unacceptable.”

According to the organisation, many OPEC countries were currently reaping the gains of the Ukraine-Russian war, with the world abandoning Russian oil and gas to seek alternatives; yet Nigeria, blessed with a vast reservoir of oil and gas, remained impoverished in the midst of this vast opportunity.

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The group’s newly-elected President, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi (also known as “Askari”), said the former Army Chief displayed a dangerous level of mischief, prejudice and narrow-mindedness by making the highly unintelligent comparison of a pro-democracy group like OPC with a world-acclaimed terrorist organisation like Boko Haram.

Also speaking on agitations for a separatist Oduduwa Republic, Afolabi said only the entrenchment of equity, justice and restructuring in the country would silence such agitations.

On Dambazau’s terrorist labelling of OPC, the leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group said: “Is this an attempt to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it? It will not work. We shall not succumb to this cheap attempt at blackmail and negative profiling. OPC is not, has never been and will never be a terrorist organisation. Nobody should link us with or liken us to  terrorists. We have never been on the global radar of terrorism like Boko Haram because we have never even been remotely connected with terrorism.

“Dambazau and his likes should realise that there is no Federal Character in terrorism. The South-West has never bred any terrorist organisation, least of all OPC. These are people who feel that the tragedy they brought upon their part of the country should be duplicated in the South. But it won’t work, not even with the backing they are giving killer Fulani herdsmen.”

According to him, Dambazau was allegedly exposing himself as a sponsor of Boko Haram.

The group said his rhetoric and mindset indicated why the administrators of the Nigerian Army from the North had allegedly continued to play and toy with Boko Haram while sacrificing the lives of thousands of poor soldiers for nothing.

He said: “Northern leaders have treated Boko Haram like a pet snake and allowed it to grow stronger instead of killing it once and for all. What they should realise is that there is neither Federal Character nor Quota System in terrorism. The North should call a spade a spade and demand its leaders to bring this ugly Boko Haram insurgency to a close. It is no longer a secret that Generals like Dambazau turned the fight against Boko Haram into an ATM. Dambazau and the others exploited the Boko Haram insurgency to amass massive blood money that allowed him to purchase choice houses in places like Abuja, Dubai and the US. His tenure was characterised by several acts of corruption that have been swept under the carpet.”

Afolabi said OPC continued to maintain excellent relationships with police, DSS and other relevant agencies for the maintenance of security, law and order in the entire South-West.

The OPC president pointed out: “A case in point is the last #EndSARS protests. OPC operatives guarded the police stations and prevented several of them from being burnt down. Several DPOs, officers and men are living witnesses to our patriotic action on that occasion.”

Pointing out that OPC, as a socio-cultural organisation formed in 1994, had millions of followers who fought for the entrenchment of democracy as part of NADECO, Afolabi said the organisation had brought welfare and security to Yoruba indigenes as well as to settlers in the South-West.

He recalled that General Sani Abacha sent his foot-soldiers on a killing spree in the South-West, slaughtering and bombing known pro-democracy activists.

Afolabi said: “Where was Dambazau when people were dying for June 12 and democracy? OPC was part of NADECO. Hundreds of OPC warriors paid the supreme price for the democracy under which Dambazau became Chief of Army Staff (2008 and 2010) and Minister of the Interior (2015 to 2019).”

According to him, the OPC Founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, was a Scottish-trained medical doctor, who was, along with some of his members, were severally detained and charged for all sorts of fake charges by the military junta, but at the end, they were always discharged and acquitted.

On calls for an Oduduwa Republic, Afolabi explained: “There is no smoke without fire and no true Yoruba person is comfortable with the current situation in Nigeria today. Agitations whether for Biafra or Oduduwa Republic are being fuelled by the rising scale of insecurity, the unhindered killings by Fulani herdsmen, kidnapping and poverty. OPC will not go against the wish, aspiration and decision of the generality of Yoruba people on the matter.

“As Dr. Fasehun always said, Nigeria must come together to the negotiation table and fashion out a truly people’s Constitution that will emphasise True Federalism, Resource Control and Devolution of Power. Without taking that road, Nigeria likely may break up.”

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Lamenting the Lekki Tollgate killings and the subsequent wanton destruction of lives and property, Otunba Wasiu Afolabi (alias “Askari,”), deputy president to the late founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, said in a statement yesterday that rioters should withdraw from the streets and end the era of violence.

OPC also called for President Muhammadu Buhari and Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwoolu, to immediately empanel commissions of enquiry at both the federal and state levels to investigate, identify and sanction those behind Tuesday’s shooting of unarmed protesters at Lekki in Lagos.

“Such a heinous crime must not be swept under the carpet; or else we shall be nurturing a licence-to-kill mentality in our military men and security operatives as well as open up our civilian citizenry to the abuse and impunity of those supposed to protect us,” Afolabi said.

OPC noted that the peaceful conduct of the #EndSARS protests had been hijacked by hoodlums who now found an opportunity to loot, cause mayhem and destroy the economic basis of the region.

“Private businesses, many of whom like OPC backed the highly credible #EndSARS campaign, should not suffer for the ineptitude of the government and the criminality of evil policemen. And OPC as an organisation will not fold its arms and watch the region turned into the scapegoat of the #EndSARS protests,” the OPC Deputy President said.

Afolabi issued the statement on Friday after the OPC executives held a meeting at the Century Hotel, in Okota-Isolo area of Lagos, to review events of the last few days.

However, the organisation noted that every agitation must end on the negotiation table and time had come for campaigners to step back and see whether or not the government would fulfil its promise to end SARS and bring about massive reforms in the police.

In his own words, Afolabi: “The #EndSARS campaigns got our unflinching support and we fully backed the protesters. Not only is it their legitimate and constitutionally-guaranteed right to express our collective pain, but indeed and in fact that arm of the Nigeria Police had turned itself into an unruly terrorist clique with clear and verifiable abuses of citizens’ rights to life, movement and liberty. As citizens, those protesting had a duty to denounce SARS and FSARS operatives in order to prevent them from continuing their evil business as usual.”

However, according to Afolabi, the current reality was that the destruction of businesses and tools of businesses amounted to a huge loss to the people of the South-West, many of whom owned vandalised businesses as well as those who were gainfully employed in those places and could end up losing their jobs.

He said OPC would not tolerate a situation where South-West citizens became the biggest losers of the anti-SARS campaign.

Commiserating with citizens who lost relations, friends and property, Afolabi prayed that God would console them and restore their lost property.

Protesters have attacked and in some cases burnt several private and public enterprises, including: Oriental Hotel, Lekki Tollgate, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and Polaris Bank all on Admiralty Way in Victoria Island, over 30 buses belonging to the Lagos State Government, BRT Company and the BRT terminal at Oyingbo.

Other fire-bombed facilities are: Governor Sanwoolu’s family home in Surulere, the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Secretariat, Television Continental, TVC, building, over 20 police stations, the Nigerian Ports Authority Building at Marina Lagos, Shoprite and other commercial malls.

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