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Sell above N145 per litre face stiff penalty FG warns marketers
The Federal Government has warned that it will impose heavy sanction on petroleum marketers who sell above the N145 per litre approved pump head price. The government insisted that there was no plan to hike the price of petrol, above N145 per litre, stating that it is currently drawing up stiff sanctions to be meted out to marketers that were found selling above the approved price range.
Meanwhile the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) says it has sealed four filling stations in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State for hoarding fuel and selling above pump price. The Controller of DPR in-charge of Ondo and Ekiti, Mr Adewale Oseni, told newsmen on Friday in Owo that the operation was carried out late Thursday night and Friday morning. “We also auctioned the product to motorists before the stations were sealed off. The operators of the stations still have to pay the imposed fine to deter them from selling above the pump price. We hope it will send some lessons to erring marketers,” he said. Oseni said that the Federal Government would soon bring in more fuel to the state through the major marketers.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on reports from the Senate hearing that petrol price was to sell for N180 per litre, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, appealed for an end to politicisation of the fuel crisis and speculation on petrol prices. He said, “I want to make it very clear, there is no intended price increase. Petrol price is N145 per litre at the pump price, it remains that; nothing has changed. There is no mandate to increase that. The President’s mandate on this issue is very specific; we are not increasing price from N145.
“We are working very hard, to see that, working with those price parameters, we can provide Nigerians with refined petroleum products all the time, avoid fuel queues and ensure that our business partners in the private sector participate actively.” Kachikwu said that it became necessary to restate the Federal Government’s stance on this issue, because in most instances, some of these rumour mongering all add to the difficulties NNPC had in terms of being able to control price speculation.
He said, “I thought we should make this very clear. This is not a matter for speculation. Anybody who does speculation on it is not being helpful to Nigerians. They have already gone through a very difficult Christmas period. We are working night and day to try and find solutions.
“It is not a political issue; people should step out of that goal post. We want to provide succour to Nigerians, we want to provide product at N145. That is the presidential mandate; that is the Federal Executive Council mandate. Nobody is having a deliberation on that.”
The Minister noted that the essence of the meeting at the Senate and the committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari a few days ago, which was still meeting, was to find mechanisms to ensure that fuel queues do not come back to Nigeria and to ensure that petrol stations across the country are wet so that product is available at every time for Nigerians.
He added that the deliberations was also aimed at ensuring that issues that led to private marketers pulling out from participation in fuel import are dealt with, so that the marketers can participate effectively in the supply of petroleum products in the country, all within the parameters o f N145 per litre pump price.
Kachikwu also disclosed that the Federal Government is considering stiff penalties for marketers that were caught sabotaging the efforts of the government at ensuring steady supply of the commodity and who sold above the stipulated pump price.
“It is very important to make this go universally clear, we are actually looking at steps for those who have breached these processes, what we can do to penalise them and also set very stiff penalties for those who go to sell above N145.
“Going forward, after the recommendations, they would be very massive enforcement; very firm position on this issue; very firm tracking of product in this country. Nobody deserves this sort of up and down in terms of product supply in this country,” he declared. Kachikwu also stated that part of the committee’s mandate was to review the pricing template for petrol and see what changes could be effected to ensure that marketers resume fuel importation within the N145 per litre pump price window.
He said “As part of this committee’s work, we are also reviewing the template to see whether there are things we need to do, all to help us ensure that we can accommodate sales at the N145 per litre window. That is also going to be looked at. The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, is working on that and it is heading a special committee on it.”
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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