A litre of Petrol sells at N200 in Jos, environs as scarcity bites harder
By; Buhari B. Bello, Jos.
As fuel scarcity continue to escalate unabated in Plateau State , the price of a litre of the commodity has risen to N200, with the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR) officials unable to check the situation, New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) investigation has shown.
A tour of many stations within Jos and Bukuru metropolis as well environs many of them had no product to sell for several weeks now.
In stations where the product is available and they sell to the Public, the Station Manager usually reserve and sell a larger quantity to the “black marketers” above the regulated price due to what someone called “Compromising Standard of DPR official in the State”.
Filling stations and black marketers in all parts of the state now sell above the N87 approved pump price because of complete absence of supervision by the regulatory bodies who are nowhere in sight.
For now, the situation has led to drastic drop in the number of commercial buses and personal cars on roads in the area.
Alhaji Baba Ado, a commercial bus driver operating intra-city service, said that he was experiencing a great difficulty getting petrol to buy despite numerous assurances by the government.
He openly indicted the officials of the DPR “for collecting bribe from the marketers who in turn sell it as they like”.
He noted that the situation was affecting his daily income as he now spend much on fuel due to the lingering scarcity in the state.
It was further observed that many commercial vehicle operators now resort to carrying thereby overloading their vehicles and inconveniencing the passengers in order to make up for the expenses they incur on fuel.
Investigations also revealed that the members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in virtually all the parks, encouraged the act due to the persistent fuel scarcity in the state.
The Federal Government is therefore called upon to adopt practical measures to end the scarcity of petroleum products in the state.
