Two weeks after the Department of State Services (DSS) directive, Premium Motor Spirits (PMS), popularly known as Gasoline or Petrol, sells above the official pump price, whereas some stations still lock their gate.
Tribune Online surveyed some parts of Osun and Oyo states, especially Osogbo and Ibadan, this week and saw that long queues were yet to disappear in major cities, making black marketers have a field day, by selling to Nigerians as high as N320 per litre.
Some transport workers who spoke with our correspondent lamented the hardship they go through due to the scarcity.
Chairman Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) Oke-Fia park motor pack Azeez Rasheed emphasised that the union increased their prices due to PMS’s scarcity and exorbitant prices.
Rasheed lamented that the many filling stations sell at a high price while only two or three stations that sell at normal pump price record long queues day and night.
He says, “We have to go and queue at the only two to three filling stations that sell at normal price while the government hasn’t done anything about it.”
He observed that the fuel scarcity and hike in its price had crippled the socio-economic activities of Nigerians, noting that for commercial activities to take place, people, goods, and services must move from one place to another.
On his part, a transport worker with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NUTRW), Musbau Adedokun, lamented that union members were not happy with the current situation, saying, “We buy petrol at N300, N320.”
ALSO READ: We won’t tolerate another IPOB in Yorubaland —Akeredolu
A motorist, Paul Israel, lamented that the hike in fuel price had affected his monthly budget, saying he had to cut down some expenses of less value to meet his fuel needs.
“Apart from cutting down some of my expenses, I also minimized my movement, I go to my place of work which is obligatory upon me but as far as visits are concerned, I visit places that are extremely necessary and important.
“However, not everybody understands, ” he bitterly complained about low patronage.
“The experience is actually terrible, buying fuel at the rate of N290 to N300, this is unacceptable; the government needs to do something urgently to address the situation for the good of Nigerians as well as the nation,” he said.
Recall that on Thursday, December 8, the Department of State Services (DSS) waded into the current fuel scarcity in the country when it gave a 48 hours ultimatum to the stakeholders in the oil sector within which to end the shortage.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja shortly after a meeting with the stakeholders by the leadership of the nation’s secret police on the scarcity, its spokesperson, Dr Peter Afunnaya, said that the Service decided to wade into the development in the interest of the nation, adding that the service will not fold its arms to allow some individuals or group to destabilise the country.
He said that during the meeting, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited discovered that it had about 1.9 billion litres of PMS in stock which would last for the period of Yuletide and long after.
“You might be wondering what our business is on this issue. Don’t forget the Constitution charged us with the mandate of detecting and preventing any threat against our internal security,” the secret police said.
