By Correspondent in Lokoja.
There was a mild drama at a filling station in Lokoja, Kogi State capital on Monday as a motorist forcibly opened the gate of the filling station, knowing that the station had no fuel to sell to the public.
The Correspondent of The Reporters, who was at Rain oil, located at NTA round, Lokoja at about 11.30 p.m, to monitor fuel situation, reports other motorists swiftly followed with their vehicles for the queue at the station were.
As the motorists and motorcylists waited in vain, they filed out of the station, looking frustrated and disappointed.
One of filling station attendants ,who spoke with our Correspondent on the condition of anonymity, described the development as “very surprising”.
” We have no fuel to sell to the public, we just sat within the premises of the station when we saw a motorist, perhaps frustrated by the scarcity of the product, opened the gate of our station and stationed his car, waiting to buy non existing fuel.
“We pray this scarcity ends soon to end people’s frustration,”he said.
Meanwhile, investigation by Correspondent showed the scarcity seemed getting tougher as all the filling stations visited on the popular Murtala Mohammed road in the heart of the town as well as Felele and Gadumo-Ganaja suburbs, had no fuel for sale to the general public at about noon on Monday.
In few filling stations where the product was sold, motorists in such exceptional case said they were able bought the product with “coupons” from public establishments and some highly placed individuals in the society.
Investigation by the online publication revealed that no where in Lokoja is a litre of fuel sold at the official pump price of N165 but N200 and above.
Consequently, the multiplier effects of the scarcity have continued to exert much pressure on the prices of goods and services, especially food stuff and transport fare with astronomical increase on daily basis.
Some members of the public who spoke with our Correspondent called on the federal government to do the needful, and timely too, by flooding filling stations with fuel to arrest the scarcity and check its effect on the social and economic life of the people.
The motorists also urged the relevant unit of the NNPC to direct its search light into checking illegal sale of fuel in Lokoja to black marketers to the detriment of those the product is meant for.
They accused fuel dealers of hording the product, adding that while the dealers locked their gates against the public in the day time, experience showed that usually the usually sell it in the night at higher price, a development they said made a litre of fuel go to as high as N500.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
