Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Femi Falana said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has no legal powers to fix or adjust the price of petrol.

Recall that NNPCL had on May 31st claimed it has adjusted petrol prices across its retail outlets.

NNPCL’s spokesman, Garba Deen Muhammad, cited “market realities” as the reason for the adjustment of the price.

However, speaking withChannels Television on Friday, Falana said it was against the law that NNPCL or the so-called “invisible market forces” were fixing the price of petrol. Adding that to fix the petrol price lies with president Bola Ahmed.

The human rights lawyer said: “The NNPC has metamorphosed into a limited liability company. It is now NNPC Limited. To that extent, NNPCs like Total, Exxonmobil, and Shell operating in the oil industry cannot announce increases in the prices of petroleum products. That duty is vested in the government.

“Nobody has the right in Nigeria to fix the prices of petroleum products other than the government. You have a price control act and at that time the petroleum act, now PIA.

“You ask the NNPC where have you got the power to fix the price of petrol from N185 to N540, how? The invisible market forces cannot under the Nigerian constitution and under the PIA fix the prices of petroleum products.

“Under the current situation in which we have found ourselves since ministers have not been appointed, the president is running the country. Only the president can sọ decide the price for now. You have the price control act, the PIA. There is no provision in our law for market forces to determine to prices of any product in the country.”