The Allied Peoples Movement has asked Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo to resign after he compared petrol prices in Nigeria with those in the United Kingdom, the party said.
The APM issued a statement criticising comments the governor made while speaking at the “Operation Rescue Benin-Asaba Road” event on September 24, when he reportedly said that petrol sells for about N3,000 per litre in the UK when converted to naira and that Nigeria was “doing very well”, according to a report of the governor’s remarks.
The APM said the comparison was inappropriate and insensitive because it ignored differences in income and purchasing power between Nigerians and people in the UK. The party described the pump price of over N1,500 per litre as worsening hardship for Nigerians and condemned the recent increase, the statement said.
The party’s national publicity secretary, Abubakar Yusuf, signed the statement, the APM said. The release argued that comparing prices without accounting for earnings was misleading, noting the wide gap between average pay in the two countries. The party contrasted a Nigerian minimum wage figure of N70,000 with higher UK earnings cited in the statement.
The APM also used teachers’ pay as an example. The statement said a British teacher starts on roughly £2,839 monthly, while a Nigerian teacher earns about N70,000 or less, an argument reported by the party against simple price comparisons.
On transport, the APM said Nigeria largely depends on informal and often costly systems, while the UK has structured, regulated and subsidised public transport, a difference the party said matters when judging the burden of petrol prices.
The statement pointed to petrol prices in other oil-producing countries, saying fuel sells for the equivalent of about N41 to N52 per litre in Libya and Iran. The APM said the governor’s comparison could provoke widespread protest and risk a breakdown of law and order, and warned the comment might be viewed as preparing the public for further fuel price rises.
The party also urged Nigerians to back its 2027 presidential candidate, Engr. Seyi Makinde, saying the election offers an opportunity for change, the statement added.
CityWatch reached neither the governor nor the Edo State government for comment. Coverage of the exchange and the APM response appears in multiple Nigerian outlets.
Sources: APM statement and coverage by the Punch (https://punchng.com/apm-slams-okpebholo-for-comparing-nigerian-fuel-prices-to-uk) and Daily Post (https://dailypost.ng/2026/09/27/okpebholo-should-resign-over-uk-fuel-price-comparison-apm).
Featured image: Preciousayara via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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