Following the persistent queues at fuel stations across the country in the past few months, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quit his role as the nation’s Petroleum Resources Minister to allow a more competent hand to manage its affairs.

In a statement released on Sunday and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party described as unpardonable the inability of the Presidency to resolve the lingering fuel crisis which has brought untold hardship on Nigerians.

While scoring him low on his economic policies, the PDP called on President Buhari to heed the wise counsels from prominent and respected Nigerians to relinquish his position to a more knowledgeable person.

“It is disheartening that instead of being remorseful for its failures, the All Progressives Congress, APC-controlled Federal Government is busy dishing out lies and fabricated indices in an attempt to give Nigerians false hope on issues related to the fuel crisis and the collapsing national economy.

“If the President, Buhari had heeded wise counsel from well-meaning Nigerians, since last year, to quit office as the minister of petroleum and allow a more competent and knowledgeable person to run the ministry, the situation would not have degenerated to excruciating pains Nigerians suffer today.

“The fact that there are inherent poor coordination, inefficiency and reported heavy sleazes in a sector that is under the direct supervision of the President, raises a lot of issues and speaks volume of the evident mismanagement of the system for which the economy is now in complete shambles.

“It is an appalling height of insensitivity that the President, as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, has failed to take any decisive steps to arrest the situation which has remained unabated since the last yuletide.

“Rather, the sector has been delivered to an APC cabal whose mission, particularly, the desperate re-election bid, largely accounts for the biting fuel situation and the economic misery Nigerians suffer today.

“It is instructive to state that the Presidency has refused to offer any explanations on the allegations linking the fuel crisis to the exposed siphoning of billions of naira through shady deals and the illegal lifting of crude oil worth trillions of naira, ostensibly to service APC interests ahead of the 2019 general elections,” it added.