Nigeria’s economy appears to be experiencing more setbacks with
the worsening fuel crisis which has hit the country.
For almost a month, Nigerians have been
queuing at fuel service stations all over the country to get petrol for their
vehicles and other users.
Lagos and Ogun States in the South west,
Delta and Rivers State in the South South, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau in
Northern Nigeria, the situation appears unbearable.
Petrol is selling over 200 Naira per
litre in the South south, but it seems to be worse in the Northern region where
fuel is said to be sold over 300 Naira.
In Imo State and Anambra, petrol is
selling for 170 Naira per litre.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe
Kachukwu has given assurances that he is trying his best to ensure the queues
reduce between the first and second week of April.
Most hit in this situation are small and
medium scale businesses who are unable to continue production, since they rely
on petrol to run electricity generating plants.
They also had very poor sales during the
Easter season.
Meanwhile, Fuel scarcity in Abuja,
Nigeria’s capital continues to bite harder as buyers wait endlessly on queues
with no hope of getting the product in sight.
Scarcity of petrol has continued to get
worse in the last two weeks. In some cases, buyers have to pay more than double
the usual amount to get fuel into their cars.
The situation is not different in most
parts of the country, where the fuel scarcity continues to affect socio
economic activities.
Various eye witness sources from the
various states in the country report that there has been a drop in economic and
social activities across the states due to the lingering fuel crisis.
Many residents now spend the better part
of their days queuing endless hours at fuel service stations.
Chaos has been the regular in most NNPC
fuel stations in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria.
Motorcyclists and vehicle owners keep
vigil at filling stations that have now become battle fields, as they struggle
to fill their tanks, generating sets and any other fuel consuming machines.
Security agents have also their hands
full, as they try to maintain law and order.
The situation is no different in Umuahia
the Abia State capital, in the southeast region, as queues continue to extend
at filling stations.
Meanwhile, in Yenagoa Bayelsa State,
South-South Nigeria there have been raids of petrol stations, as members of the
Bayelsa State Petroleum Task Force have visited over 30 stations
dispensing fuel to monitor the sale.
All the stations raided already had their
metres adjusted with unsuspecting customers getting as low as 4.5 litres for
the price of 10 litres of petrol in spite of the almost double prices.
While the Task Force officials said that
they were aware of sharp practices by the independent stations, they were
shocked to see how far they would go to rip the people off.
However, in most states, the NNPC mega
stations have been selling products at the recommended price.
The Director of the Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said that the situation would improve by
Monday, as major marketers were currently lifting products from fuel depots.
Nigerians are hoping and praying that fuel
supply normalises so that social and economic activities can pick up again at
full swing.
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