Federal Government says it is not responsible for the recent hike in the pump price of petrol, as it can no longer fix prices of petroleum products.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had raised the pump price of petrol to over N1,000 across regions in the country, except for Lagos which is N998.

Reacting to the development, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said the NNPCL made the decision in response to prevailing circumstances in the energy industry, and appealed to Nigerians to understand the situation, assuring that prices would eventually decrease.

According to Idris, since the subsidy regime ended in May 2023, the NNPCL had only been paying differential to keep the price within the range it had been, but the company said it could no longer absorb the losses.