It is no longer strange to buy petrol at N100 per litre or more in Lagos and several other major cities in the country. But this ugly trend while the government still pays billions as subsidy to oil marketers has provoked an action by a Lagos lawyer and rights activist, Kabir Akingbolu who has now dragged President Muhammadu Buhari before a Federal High Court over his failure to make adequate provision for the production and supply of petroleum products to all citizens at regulated prices.
In the suit, Akingbolu has the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, as the second defendant.
The lawyer is contending that considering the nature and extent of inconveniences which the citizens of the country were being subjected to by the lack of petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the failure of Buhari, as the Chief Executive Officer of the country, to act by making the products sufficiently available, was capable of causing breach of peace and serious discomfiture for the citizenry.
He is, therefore, praying the court to determine whether the failure of the president to address the scarcity was a breach of the oath of office he took on May 29, 2015 and a violation of the clear and unambiguous provisions of Section 130 (1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Akingbolu is also asking the court to declare that the failure of the defendants (Buhari and AGF) to make available petroleum products as a breach of oath of office, and that the failure to fix the refineries in the country was equally a breach of the constitutional obligation of the president.
