Lagosians groan as fuel scarcity bites harder

 Motorists queue for petrol at a filling station on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.... on Monday.

Motorists and commuters in Lagos groan over fuel scarcity

Motorists and commuters in Lagos went through hardship on Monday, given the current fuel scarcity that hit the city among others in the country.

While some motorists  pay between N100 and N120 per litre of the premium spirit, commercial  operators are exploiting the situation as they have increased fare in many parts of the state.

On some routes, they have hiked fares by 150 per cent, while others increased theirs by between 50 per cent and 100 per cent.

Some of them blamed the hike in fares on the sudden illegal increase in the pump price of the premium motor spirit, and time spent queuing for the commodity in the few filling stations that were dispensing it.

A commercial bus operator in Ojodu-Berger, Lateef Falola, says he bought fuel at the sum of N110 per litre and that he can only make up for this by hiking the transport fare.

He says in Pidgin English, “We no like as transport money don increase, because na de thing wey we buy we go sell. I bought one litre for N110 this morning. So, how I go make my money back?”

A trip from Ikeja to CMS on Lagos Island, which was formerly between N150 and N200, was hiked to between N250 and N300.

Again, fare for a trip from Pen Cinema, Agege to Sango-Ota, which used to cost N100, has been hiked to between N150 and N200.

Further, fare on a trip from Ikeja to Agege, that hitherto attracted N70, has been hiked to N100

A commuter, Mrs. Grace Nwaeze, laments the sudden increase in transport fare.  

She says it is the commuters that suffer each time there is fuel scarcity.

She says, “Why is it that it is only commuters that suffer any time there is fuel scarcity? Why do they want commuters to make up for the extra cost? I believe government must move in and solve whatever is responsible for this scarcity.”

Narrating his own experience at Oando filling station along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Mr. Francis Ignatius complains bitterly for having queued for  almost 40 minutes in the sun.

“You can see how long the queue is. It has extended from inside the filling station to the expressway. I have been here for close to 40 minutes and yet it is not my turn. I don’t know when this suffering over fuel would stop,” he moans.

During our correspondent’s tour of some locations in the city, he noted that Oando and Mobil filling stations were selling but they attracted long queues. This was probably because they were selling at the official price of N97 per litre.

The Oando filling station, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, by Berger,  was besieged by motorists from very early in the morning, and the situation was still the same around 4.00pm.

Again, the Mobil filling station along Agidingbi Road, Ikeja, which took delivery of fuel in the morning, was equally besieged by motorists.

Total filling stations at Pen Cinema, Agege, and another one off Wemco Road, Ikeja, equally received a large number of vehicles as they had stock to sell.

Earlier giving reasons for the scarcity of fuel, the Chairman, South-West chapter,  Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Mr. Tokunbo Korodo, said there was a delay in the approval of import allocation to the oil marketers.

He said, “The import allocation was given last week and you know everything has due process. The marketers would have to contact their banks, order the product, and ship it to Nigeria.  As such, it will take three to four weeks for the product to get to the Nigerian soil.”

On his part, the acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, said its agencies would “commence detailed monitoring of fuel stations in Lagos and its environs as well as any other state to check incidence of hoarding and panic buying.”

For now, motorists and commuters may have to continue to endure this hardship.