Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has challenged the Federal Government to explain how petrol prices have risen to as much as N1,470 per litre despite increased oil revenues and savings from the removal of fuel subsidy.

Atiku, in a statement issued on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the latest increase in petrol prices had placed additional pressure on Nigerians already struggling with high transportation, food and living costs.

He said Nigerians were told that subsidy removal would free resources for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services, but argued that the continued rise in petrol prices required the government to account for the revenues and savings generated since the policy was introduced.

“Petrol at N1,470 per litre is not merely a figure at the filling station. It enters the price of transportation, food, school runs, farming, manufacturing and virtually everything Nigerians buy,” Atiku said.

“After all the pain imposed on Nigerians, they have a right to ask: where are the subsidy savings and where is the money?”

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress called for a comprehensive reconciliation of federation account revenues from 2023 to date, including gross collections, deductions, the statutory basis for such deductions, accounts into which the funds were paid and their ultimate beneficiaries.

Atiku cited June 2025 federation account figures, saying gross revenue stood at N4.232 trillion while N1.818 trillion was eventually distributed, adding that sums categorised as cost of collection, transfers, interventions, refunds and savings required greater scrutiny.

He also demanded transparency on transactions involving the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund, OML 143, oil production revenues and NNPC’s international LNG trading operations, as well as offshore corporate structures and allegations of unofficial crude lifting and other possible off-book revenue flows.

“These allegations are too serious to be answered with press statements and political insults,” he said, urging the government to publish relevant records and allow independent forensic auditors to reconcile the accounts.

Atiku also rejected attempts to attribute rising domestic petrol prices solely to international crude oil prices, comparing the current situation with the period when crude oil sold at about $147 per barrel in 2008 and petrol was sold at N65 per litre.

He said the current prices were particularly burdensome because Nigerians earn far less than their counterparts in the United States, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of bringing Nigerians close to American fuel prices while leaving them with “Nigerian poverty wages.”

“After all the oil, all the revenue, all the deductions and all the hardship, petrol is now N1,470 per litre,” Atiku said.

“The question Tinubu must answer is simple: where are the savings, where are the revenues, and who is taking Nigeria’s money?”