Motorists and commuters in Port Harcourt are having a hectic time as the price of petrol popularly called petrol, has hit N350 per litre.
Even at that the commodity has remained scarce, creating traffic gridlock around the few filling stations that sell the product.
But the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has said there is no justification for the scarcity of petroleum products in Port Harcourt and environs.
When THISDAY went round Port Harcourt metropolis yesterday, most of the filling stations were closed but black market was thriving, with petrol selling for N350 per litre.
There were also long queues at the few filling stations where the product was available for sale, with people spending several hours before it could get to their turn. They also end up buying the product for N180 instead of the approved N87 per litre.
The black marketers took an advantage of the situation, selling the product for as much as between N6,000 and N7,000 in 20-litre jerry cans.
But DPR in the state attributed the scarcity of petrol and the attendant high cost and hardship the people of the state were experiencing to hoarding of the product by some loading depots in the state capital.
DPR Head Regional Operations, Port Harcourt, Mr Olaniyi Ibiyemi, told journalists while he was carrying out a surveillance exercise on the loading depots in the state that there was no reason for fuel to be scarce in Port Harcourt, adding that the problem was due to the attitude of some of the loading depots in the state.
According to him, DPR discovered that the affected depots were hoarding the product, thus causing low truck out and low supply in the state capital.
Speaking further, Olaniyi advised marketers within the Port Harcourt metropolis to visit the Master Energy Depot, an independent marketer based at Rumuolumeni in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, to load the product.
He said the Managing Director of the independent depot had told him that it had about 20 million litres of petrol in stock, but the marketers were not coming to load.
When contacted, Group Resident, Master Energy Group, confirmed that there was enough supply at the depot, not only for the state, but also for some other parts of the country.
He said what largely accounted for the scarcity in Port Harcourt and its environs was the refusal of the marketers to come to the depot to load, due to bad road.
“What I am saying is that you can see that we are loading at full capacity. The trucks are loaded, they are packed on the roads; everywhere. They cannot leave the environment because of bad road.
In Umuahia, the Abia State capital, there was noticeable drastic reduction in the number of vehicles plying major roads in Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State following the biting fuel scarcity which has persisted for over a week now sending the price racing to the sky.
As at yesterday, a litre of petrol had jumped to N200 in the few stations selling the commodity.
Some people that called in a phone-in programme on a private radio station, Family Love FM even claimed that they paid as much as N400 per litre in the rural areas.
However, there was no price change in the NNPC stations and in stations owned by major marketers where the product was available.
It was observed that vehicle owners were either at the very long queues at the few filling stations selling petrol or just decided to park their vehicles at home waiting for the time the situation would normalise.
“I think it’s better for me to leave my car at home because I don’t want to risk using the remaining fuel in my car to go and queue when you might end up not buying after expending the one you have,” said John Ugorji, a civil servant.
“To me, it makes more sense to conserve what you have in this difficult time.”
The ubiquitous tricycles popularly known as Keke that usually struggle for right of way with cars, buses and even heavy duty vehicles on city roads have equally witnessed reduction in the number plying the roads. The Keke operators, who abandoned their tricycles, joined in the sing song of “no fuel.”
Expectedly, transport cost has increased as drivers of the few commercial vehicles on the road seek to recoup the extra amount of money they paid to buy petrol. The transport fare from Umuahia to Aba that used to be N200 has been increased to N300 while intra-city transport in Keke has witnessed increase of upwards of 50 per cent from N50 per drop.
At the NNPC mega station along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, the queue was so long that it encroached on the Nkwegwu market over 700 metres away.
While the queue was orderly it was a different ball game at the stations owned by independent marketers where desperate customers crowded fuel pumps with different sizes of plastic containers jostling to buy petrol. There was frustration on the faces of motorists as they waited longingly for their turn to get the precious liquid.
It was observed that independent marketers who have supplies further aggravated the situation by hoarding the products in the day only to start selling at exorbitant prices from 7p.m.
“Why are we being pushed back to this harrowing experience? Is this the change that Buhari promised us,” an exasperated Markus Onwukwe, a businessman, asked as he waited for the next time the queue would move. He told THISDAY that “there was no way the nation’s economy would be revamped if the problem of fuel scarcity is not resolved once and for all.”
Meanwhile the state Ministry of Petroleum and Solid Minerals has been announcing on the state radio the names and locations of the few filling stations in Umuahia and Aba where petrol has been supplied.
For instance, the NNPC mega station was said to have been supplied with 33,000 litres of petrol.
The statement signed by the permanent secretary, Mr. Anthony Ojinji, directed motorists to proceed to the named stations to purchase the product at government approved price of N87. But it was no source of comfort for motor owners who continue to agonise over the scarcity of the product needed to make economic and social activities flow.
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