A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has claimed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) does not have the legal rights to fix or adjust the price of petrol.

Falana insists that the power to fix petrol lies with President Bola Tinubu, because there is no substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources.

On May 31, NNPCL announced it has adjusted petrol prices across its retail outlets.

NNPCL’s spokesman, Garba Deen Muhammad, cited “market realities” as the reason for the adjustment of the price.

But speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Friday, Falana said it was against the law that NNPCL or the so-called “invisible market forces” were fixing the price of petrol.

“The NNPC has metamorphosed into a limited liability company. It is now NNPC Limited. To that extent, NNPCs like Total, Exxonmobil, and Shell operating in the oil industry cannot announce increases in the prices of petroleum products. That duty is vested in the government.

"Nobody has the right in Nigeria to fix the prices of petroleum products other than the government. You have a price control act and at that time the petroleum act, now PIA,” Falana said.