The Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday, ordered the federal government to fix the prices of some basic goods and petroleum products within seven days, amid rapidly increasing prices of goods and services in the country.
Specifically, the court ordered the government to control the prices of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles and their spare parts, matches, motorcycles and their spare parts, motor vehicles and their spare parts and petroleum products.
Petroleum products listed by the court for price control are: diesel, petrol motor spirit (PMS), widely known as petrol, and kerosene.
The judge, Ambose Lewis-Allagoa, issued the price control order after listening to an application by a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), The Nation reports.
He noted that the representatives of the federal government sued in the suit by Mr Falana did not file any objection to the applicant’s prayers despite being served with the suit.
“I have had the applicant Femi Falana, SAN, in a suit No. FHC/L/CS/869/2023 and I have also discovered that despite the service of the originating motion on the respondents namely Attorney-General of the Federation and the Price Control Board, no opposition to it by way of counter-affidavit, which is law that all the facts deposed in the affidavit attached to the originating motion are all deemed admitted.
“Consequently, all prayers that are sought for in the motion papers are hereby granted as prayed,” the court ruled.
Implementation challenge
The ruling did not specify the modalities the government is expected to adopt in fixing and controlling prices of the listed items given Nigeria’s fast-paced inflation.
It is unclear if the court expects the government to reverse its deregulation policy on petrol which led to the government’s removal of subsidy on the petroleum product last year.
The court order comes less than nine months after the new President Bola Tinubu administration removed the subsidy on petrol at its inauguration last May.
The petrol subsidy removal coupled with a new forex policy announced by the government turned out to be a pivotal twin policy that immediately shot up the prices of food as well as other goods and services.
Nigeria’s tottering, largely import-dependent economy takes a hard hit from the free-fall of the value of the naira against the U.S. dollar.
The imbalance in the economic indices is mirrored in the steady increase in Nigeria’s inflation.
Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 28.92 per cent in December 2023 from 28.20 per cent in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in January.
NBS said the December 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 per cent points when compared to the November 2023 headline inflation rate.
It added that on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 7.58 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022, which was 21.34 per cent.
Falana’s novel legal question, prayers
Concerned about the impact of the inflation-driven high cost of living in the country, Mr Falana approached the Federal High Court in Lagos to raise a novel legal question rooted in the hardly referenced Price Control Act.
He urged the court to determine “whether by virtue of Section 4 of the Price Control Act, the first defendant is carrying out its duty to impose a price on any goods that are of the kind specified in the First Schedule to the Price Control Act.”
Urging the court to answer in the affirmative, Mr Falana urged the court to declare that “by virtue of Section 4 of the Price Control Act Cap, the defendants are under a legal obligation to fix the prices of bicycles and spare parts; flour; matches; milk; motorcycles and spare parts; motor vehicles and spare parts; salt; sugar and petroleum products including diesel, petrol motor spirit and kerosene.”
He also urged the court to direct the federal government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Price Control Board, to fix the prices of listed items within seven days.
Mr Falana’s prayers read: “A declaration that the failure or refusal of the Defendants to fix the prices of bicycles and spare parts; flour; matches; milk; motorcycles and spare parts; motor vehicles and spare parts; salt; sugar and petroleum products including diesel, petrol motor spirit and kerosene is illegal as it offends the provision of Section 4 of the Price Control Act, Cap…., Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
“An order directing the defendants to fix the prices of bicycles and spare parts; flour; matches; milk; motorcycles and spare parts; motor vehicles and spare parts; salt; sugar and petroleum products including diesel, petrol motor spirit and kerosene not later than 7 days after the delivery of the Judgment of this Honourable Court.”
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