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The Oodua Consultative Forum (OCF) has faulted plans by President Muhammadu Buhari to return tollgates across federal highways in the country, insisting that the policy would only worsen the plight of Nigerians, especially the Yoruba Race.
President-General Worldwide, OCF, Prince Adebisi Oyemade, who disclosed this in a media statement issued in Abeokuta, Ogun State, stated that the “tollgate return is especially obnoxious condemnable given the fact that in the first place, the tollgates were abolished nationwide by former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the understanding that the toll collectable from them would be incorporated into the pump price of fuel, which was indeed promptly done then.”
The OCF leader added: “Since we are unaware of any recent policy decision removing the tollgate component from the pump price of fuel, it is only reasonable to view the return of tollgates as a form of double taxation on hapless citizens of this country by the Buhari government.”
Calling for an immediate stop to the policy, the pan-Yoruba socio-economic group stated: “Without any iota of doubt, the tollgate policy will hit hardest in Yorubaland and affect the Yoruba Race the most because our part of the country has the highest concentration of tollgates in Nigeria. This policy therefore would hit the pockets of the Yoruba people the most. It would further impose needless and avoidable hardship on the Yoruba People and the entire South West region where economic and vehicular activities are highest in Nigeria.
“Allied to the ongoing closure of the land borders in the South West – which, according to information reaching us from reliable sources, is really where the borders are effectively shut as against some parts of the North – the tollgate return can only further impoverish the Yoruba people as it takes more money out of our peoples’ pockets, forcibly we dare to add as it is entirely uncalled for since we all pay the sought toll on every litre of fuel sold at any petrol station in the land. The proposed tollgate return is therefore, obnoxious, policy which President Muhammadu Buhari should stop right away.”
The OCF is a non-partisan umbrella body of all Yoruba in Nigeria and worldwide. It pursues the overall advancement of the Yoruba Race in Nigeria and wherever peoples of Yoruba origin are found around the World.
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