#FuelPriceHike: Lagosians laments buying fuel N1000 Per litre

• Lagosians are crying over the current fuel price hike
• The majority lamented buying fuel N500 and N1000 before fuel could be sold to them.

Following the recent fuel price hike, Lagosians are lamenting the continuous fuel scarcity and cried they are buying fuel N500 and N1000 before fuel could be sold to them.

An example of a fuel station named Eterna Filling Station in Gbagada, Lagos, was sighted by FIJ as residents came in their hundreds to get fuel due to the latest scarcity that had just hit the nation’s commercial hub.

Attendants at the station were seen charging vehicles and jerry can owners between N500 and N1000 before selling them fuel. Fij stated that whether in cash or fund transfer, Jamiu Lawal, one of the attendants at the station, was determined to collect the ‘compulsory charge’ from customers.

“You guys are ignorant of the system at filling stations,” he said.

“Sometimes before you resume work, you are told to pay N30,000 from your own pocket to the fuel station management before you occupy any pump, whether scarcity or no scarcity.

“And if I ever make N20,000 sale from these charges, I take half and give the other half to my boss.”

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Oil marketers said on Wednesday that the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, in many parts of Nigeria was caused by the lack of mother vessels to ship the product to the country.

They also insisted on raising the price of the commodity following the increase in the value of the US dollar against the naira, as it was reported that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was running low on supplies in many of its depots.

“There is a serious lag in product sufficiency from NNPC because of the unavailability of mother vessels. These are vessels that ship the product from abroad. That is why we have a gap,” the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, told our correspondent.

He added, “It is not just about the flood, because the scarcity is hitting many other parts of the country. There was serious scarcity in Port Harcourt and you can see what is happening in Lagos now. In Abuja, it has been there since.”

Ukadike stated that depots in the western zone were lacking products, as “all the private depots and even NNPC don’t have products.”

He said, “In Port Harcourt, there is no product in private depots, except that we heard this (Wednesday) evening that some products are coming to Masters Energy Depot.

“Also, we now buy products from depots at N179 – N180/liter; for those who manage to get them. That is why we independent marketers are tired of this epileptic distribution of PMS.

“It is high time the Federal Government revived the refineries. Our dependence on imports is really devaluing our naira and bringing suffering to the masses. One dollar is now N760 at the parallel market.”

He stated that when the dollar strengthened, the cost of PMS locally would definitely rise because Nigeria was importing the commodity.