The price of premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol has risen above the approved pump price of N97 per liter to N125 in Umuahia and its environs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that apart from few major marketers that occasionally sell at the regulated pump price, independent marketers have hiked the price to between N120 and N130 per litre.
The situation is worst at the major marketers’ service stations where the pump attendants were seen idling and discussing the situation.
Several vehicles queued to buy the product at N120 per litre at a private service station on Ikot Ekpene Road, Umuahia, on Wednesday.
An attendant at the station, who simply identified herself as Josephine, blamed the situation on the scarcity of the product.
“The product is scarce; because of the scarcity, we are no longer getting regular supplies,’’ she said.
An independent marketer who preferred anonymity told NAN that “we are spending more to source the product from Lagos and other places’’.
An official of the Tanker Drivers’ Union, Aba branch, Mr Gerald Okoro, said on phone that they stopped loading the product at the Osisioma depot of NNPC for more than three weeks running.
A motorist, Mr Kingsley Ibe, also expressed worry over the situation.
He said: “I am disturbed by this situation because I thought that the Federal Government had solved the problem of fuel scarcity permanently in the country.’’
Ibe and Josephine appealed to the Federal Government and “appropriate agencies of government’’ to take immediate measures to arrest the situation.
“Government should do something fast to make the product available and save the poor masses from more economic hardship,’’ Ibe urged. (NAN)
