Fuel Subsidy: Get Ready For Mass Action —Activists

The Joint Action Front, JAF, a member of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition, LASCO, today called on Nigerians to get ready for mass action and resistance against the planned removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.

At a press conference held in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, JAF declared that the enrichment of the ruling class at the expense of the suffering masses must not be allowed to continue.

“The continuous fraudulent enrichment of the few ruling cabals in Federal, state and local governments and their cronies through the anti-people policies of privatisation and deregulation and the unprecedented mismanagement and looting of public funds through the so-called fuel subsidy and security votes since 1999, must not be allowed to continue,” Comrade Biodun Aremu, JAF General Secretary who read a prepared statement, said.

“JAF hereby calls on the Nigerian working people, students, traders, professionals, women, unemployed youth, farmers, artisans, Muslims, Christians and traditional believers and compatriots to rise now and use mass action to reject and resist any increase in the prices of fuel,” he stated.

The activist warned that if Nigerians failed to act now, inequality will widen and poverty will skyrocket to an unsustainable level.

“The Inspector-General of Police has been reported as saying that the police and security operatives are trigger-happy to crush all protests against hike in fuel prices. What further evidence do we need other than the fascist order by Governor Fashola of Lagos State to a combined team of armed personnel and political thugs, that ensured the killing, brutalization, arrest and detention of residents of Lekki and its environs in Eti-osa LGA of Lagos State, who peacefully protested against the imposition of toll fees on Saturday, 17 December 2011,” JAF stated. The activists called on Nigerians to boycott and shut petrol stations that sell petroleum products above the official prices.

—Simon Ateba