As hardship continues to bite harder following the persistence fuel scarcity in parts of the country, residents of Kaduna and Osun states are now contending with high price of petroleum product as major marketers have taken advantage of the scarcity to unduly hike the price.
LEADESHIP checks in Kaduna revealed that major independent filing stations in Kafanchan, Zaria, and Kaduna-Abuja expressway were selling the product between N120 and N150 a litre to buyers.
Only one pump was dispensing fuel among all the filling station visited within the state metropolis, even when some had as much as 6 selling pumps, thus making it difficult for consumers to purchase.
Checks also showed that most filling stations had special pumps reserved for staff of Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC), Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).
This was more glaring at filing stations along Ahmadu Bello Way as the gate of the filling station were flung open for this class of buyers who drove in to fill their vehicles and extra containers at the official price of N97.
The Public Affairs Manager of Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Alhaji Mohammed Idris, when contacted on phone, said it was not the business of the KRPC to supervise how the product was sold.
?“All I can assure you is that our refinery is working and we churning out products with no disruption. All we do is to hand over what we produce to PPMC. After that, we are not in control,” he said.
The KRPC now produces about 12.5 million litres of PMS per day working at 75% capacity.
A statement from the PPMC headquarters yesterday said there was no reason for fuel scarcity in Kaduna state. The DPR on their part said it had sealed off four filling stations in Kaduna for misconduct.
The Manager, Public Affairs, of PPMC, Mr. Nasir Imodagbe, in a statement said it was illegal for any filling station manager to reserve any fuel pump for any group of people, insisting that the state was adequately supplied with products.
In Osun State, residents are now experiencing serious hardship in getting the product.
Investigation conducted by LEADERSHIP in the state revealed that premium motor spirit (PMS) was not available in most of the filling stations in Osogbo, the state capital, and the few stations that had it sold a litre at between N120 and N130.
The scarcity of PMs, otherwise known as petrol, in the state has led to hike in transport fares by 20 percent, with concomitant effect on food prices and commuters have a hard time moving across the state as only few vehicles were available for transportation.
It was gathered that the transport fare from Ikirun to Osogbo which was N150 before the hike in the prices of petroleum product is now N200, while Osogbo to Ile-Ife which was N200 is now N300, a situation which commuters condemned.
?
?
?