By Harry Awurumibe, just back from Owerri
In spite of the repeated assurances of the availability of the Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) popularly called petrol by the federal government agencies, the product has remained very scare across the country.
This is even as many passengers are left stranded on the major highways and state roads due to the inability of transporters to refill their fuel tanks after they ran out of petrol in their vehicles in the middle of the journey.
Prompt News reports that about 97% of petrol stations across the country are not dispensing petrol to customers as many shut their gates against buyers just as the few that have fuel sold it as high as N300 on Tuesday.
Our investigations revealed that both the major and independent petroleum products marketers are now hoarding the PMS product and hiking the price to maximise profits in the absence of relevant federal government monitoring and enforcing agencies on ground to do the needful.
For example, a litre of petrol is sold for N210 in Owerri, capital of Imo state while it’s selling for N250 in the rural areas of the state, the same price its sold in Umuahia, Abia; Enugu; Ebonyi and Anambra states and neighbouring Delta state at the moment.
Also, petrol is currently selling for N250 at the filling stations along Lokoja-Zuba road in Abaji Council Area of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), although the few filling stations that are dispensing in Abuja metropolis are selling at the official price of PMS.
A commercial minibus driver with Imo Transport Company (ITC) who pleaded anonymity said he and most of his colleagues in the transport sector are experiencing hard times since the fuel scarcity started a month ago.
Said he: “This fuel scarcity has impacted negatively on our job because we now spend longer hours on the road looking for petrol especially those of us plying long distance trips from South East to Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Ibadan and Lagos”.
A passenger who gave her name as Annabel Peters recounted how petrol finished in the Sienna bus she was travelling on the Itobe-Ejule road in Kogi state and the passengers had to spend over an hour before the driver can buy petrol from black market to take them to their final destination in Abuja.
She argued that with the federal government unable to find the solution to the lingering fuel scarcity across Nigeria, travellers will face unpleasant situation in the days ahead.
