Fact Check: Did President Muhammadu Buhari Reduce Fuel Price To ₦70 Per Litre?

Claim: GREAT NEWS: Buhari Reduce Fuel Price To ₦70 Today – An online blog

Verdict: FALSE!

Full Story:

On June 6, an online blog published an erroneous report claiming that Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has reduced fuel price to ₦70 per litre.

While the headline made an assertive claim, the body of the news story was misleading as it read that the opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) urged Mr Buhari to reduce fuel price to ₦70 per litre immediately.

Verification:

Following our aim to help fight misinformation which is fast causing more harm than good to humanity, NaijaNews Fact Check independently cross-checked the claim published by the online blog and available evidence revealed that at no point did Mr Buhari ever ordered a reduction of fuel price to ₦70 per litre.

The suspicion in the claim could first be detected in the disagreement that occurred between the headline of the erroneous report and the body itself.

Findings by NaijaNews Fact Check that reveal that while the price of premium motor spirit popularly known fuel or petrol has been reduced three times this year, at no instance was it reduced to ₦70 per litre.

The first reduction was announced by the Federal Government on March 18 from N145 per litre to 125 per litre. The reason for the reduction may not be disconnected from the fall in oil prices and by extension a reduction in the landing cost of petrol across most counties.

Again, the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government slashed the fuel price from ₦125 per litre to ₦123.50 per litre, a downfall by ₦2 which took effect on April 1. Barely two months after, the Federal Government subsequently reduced petrol price again from ₦123 per litre to ₦121 per litre.

Since the last reduction was announced on May 31, there is no report from any credible media organisation in Nigeria that further reduction was made nor a reduction to ₦70

Conclusion:

Following our findings and available news reports that our fact checks hyperlinked above, no credible media organisation reported the story of reduction to ₦70 per litre.

Sources at the petroleum ministry also confirmed to our researcher that at no point did the Federal Government make such reduction. Hence, the report that President Muhammadu Buhari reduced fuel price to ₦70 per litre is FALSE!!!