By Dada Ahmed in Okene.
Lokoja-Okene bound drivers have expressed disgust on Sunday as fuel hit at least, N230 per litre in Okene, a commercial town and the headquarters of Okene Local Governnent Area of Kogi state.
Our Correspondent, who visited some filling stations in Okene on Sunday, reports that the current scarcity of fuel in Lokoja,the state capital, has spread to Okene with major filling stations having no fuel for sale to motorists.
In few filling station where fuel is sold, it was at a cost of at least N230 per litre while some drivers said the price could be as high as N270 in other filling stations in the area.
Commenting on the development in an interview with our Correspondent,a Lokoja-Okene bound commercial driver, Issa Mohammed, described scarcity of fuel in Okene as worse compared to Lokoja where the product is sold betweenei N190 and N200 per litre.
The official price of fuel pump price in Nigeria is N179 per though what appears in the pumping is the unofficial price of N190 per litre, drivers maintained that they were actually buying was N230 per litre.
Mohamed said:” The current hike in the price of fuel, especially in Okene, is fast going beyond the purchasing capacity of an average commercial driver to cope with.
“Hardly any commercial driver in Okene can boast of making tangible profit at the end of the day’s business as all our proceeds go for the purchase of fuel which continues to hit the roof.
“Many of us are still in job because we have no other profession to fall back to,not that there is much profitability in the job again.
“We will be happy if governnent can help us check black marketers in fuel business so that we can at least, make some profit or brake even in this business.
“The terrible hike in motor spare parts, accelerated wear and tear of our vehicles and bad road are also issues giving us sleepless night as much of our proceeds go for the purchase of spare parts and repairs of our vehicles.
Mohamed’s colleagues who aligned with his observation on the issue, called on the federal government to supply more fuel to the filling stations as a natural way of forcing down the price of fuel to official level.
Our Correspondent reports that consequently, transport fare, which used to be N500 or N600 from Lokoja to Okene,(70kms) as the case may be few months ago, has risen to N1,000 per trip and in some instances,N1,200.
Commercial and tricycle operators in Okene and its environs are not spared as they have also hiked their services by 50 to 80 percent increase, citing skyrocketing price of fuel.
Some passengers who also complained of the hike in transport fare,in separate interview with The Reporters,called on NNPC limited to direct its searchlight on shylock dealers selling fuel beyond the official pump price of N179 per litre in the area.
