By Kamil Opeyemi and Halimah Olamide
Chief Executives of states are on hunting missions for fuel marketers who are hoarding products as scarcity of fuel bites harder across the country.
In many parts of the country as at Tuesday, petrol sold for as much as N650 per litre with anxieties that prices might still go higher.
There are suspicions that many of the fuel stations are hoarding fuel shortly after the Monday’s declaration by new President Bola Tinubu that “fuel subsidy is gone.”
Though many are believed not to have taken fresh supplies from depots, majority of the marketers had suddenly adjusted their pumps to sell at preferred prices.
In many parts of Lagos, fuel stations sold for as much as N400 per litre.
The development created hardship for many residents as many commercial vehicles were forced to leave the road.
The few buses left operational had hiked transport fares by as much as 100 percent on Tuesday.
NPO Reports correspondents who moved round observed that many residents were stranded at bus stops with no hopes of getting buses to their destinations.
A resident of Ogba, who identified himself as Mathem Ogon, said he had trekked from Agege to Omole because the few buses that operated were already charging more the. 100 percent of the normal fare.
“I left my house not knowing there was anything like fuel scarcity. I only go to the bust stop to find many others stranded. Gradually I started trekking with the hope that I would get a bus but here I am at Aguda Bus stop, no vehicle,” a frustrated Ogon said
At the few filling stations where fuel was being sold as at Tuesday, the situations were critical as thousands had besieged the stations. The situation also created traffic logjams in many parts of the Lagos metropolis.
No one has listened to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, whose Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, had assured that there would be no crisis following the president’s Monday announcement.
He had said that there was no reason for any panic buying saying the subsidy would remain until the end of June.
The oil chief had also met President Tinubu on Tuesday for the first time at a meeting at the president’s office after which he assured that the scarcity would be short-lived.
The spokesman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ukadike Chinedu, has said that it is difficult to go along with the President’s declaration saying there is no way such a sudden removal of oil subsidy would not cause what he called “galloping inflation” just as he added that it would also “inflict more hardship on the masses”.
These were just as governors in the states are out looking for marketers believed ot be hoarding fuel.
In Osun, Governor Ademola Adeleke said his government would deal with whoever is found hoarding the product.
The governor issued the warning in a statement by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed in Osogbo.
He said such acts are capable of bringing untoward hardship on the people of the state.
Adeleke said that it has been drawn to the deliberate hoarding of PMS by the fuel dealers within the state as a result of the statement from the inaugural speech of the new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the removal of fuel subsidy, thereby causing unnecessary hardship for the people in the state.
“This deliberate action is not only inhumane but unpatriotic and will not be allowed by the government. To this end, the Special Monitoring Team on fuel scarcity set up by His Excellency, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke headed by the Chief of Staff, Hon Kazeem Akinleye is still effective and shall not condone any form of economic sabotage.
“As of today, 30th May 2023, the Committee shall begin special monitoring of all the filling stations across the state in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.
“Any fuel station found guilty of hoarding fuel to create artificial scarcity shall be sealed off and operators prosecuted for the crime of economic sabotage,” he submitted.
In Bayelsa state, the governor warned that his administration would take drastic measures against any filling station that flout the directive.
He said the government had received reports that filling stations in the state capital had hiked the pump price of petrol above the usual price of between N193 and N250 per litre and now being sold at N500 per litre and above.
Marketers in the state were said to have reacted to the pronouncement by Tinubu during his inauguration on Monday, that the federal government subsidy on petrol “was gone.”
The Bayelsa governor said it was wicked for oil marketers to swiftly seek to profiteer at the detriment of the people following a mere pronouncement that had not taken effect.
He noted that the pump price of petrol was a significant determinant of the cost of goods and services in the country and that his administration would not allow the people of Bayelsa to suffer undue hardship from the profiteering activities of greedy businessmen.
Diri said he had directed the Ministry of Mineral Resources and the petroleum task force in the state to shut down any filling station hoarding the product or caught selling above the usual price.