By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The suffering of motorists in Lokoja and its environs, Kogi state, north central Nigeria, who have been groaning on long queues to buy fuel, amid scarcity of of the product, is far from being over also due to power outage.
Investigation by our Correspondent on Sunday in Lokoja revealed that though some filling stations had fuel for sale to the public, their handicap remains power outage as many of them said they could no longer use general in the absence of public light.
A petrol attendant, who spoke with our Correspondent at Total filling in Lokoja, said many filling stations in the area had been confronted with twin dilemma of scarcity of fuel and high cost of diesel to power generator as alternative to public electricity.
The petrol attendant,who spoke with our Correspondent on the condition of anonymity said”: The station has been finding it difficult to use generator to dispense fuel during power outage due to high cost of diesel.
“We have been having black out in recent time in our station and using generator,in most cases,to dispense fuel any time we have such development becomes a big problem.
“A litre of diesel,now, is not less than N800,if not more, this is one of our predicaments. We need to be wise in using generator to sell fuel, in view of the reason I gave earlier.
Our Correspondent, who queued at Total filling station, Gadumo, Lokoja as early as 5 a.m to buy fuel, on Sunday reports that the petrol attendant stopped selling the product as soon as AEDC took light around 8 30 a.m, leaving motorists bewildered.
The stand still at the filling station lasted for about 30 minutes before the sale resumed, powered by generator.
Some motorists,who spoke with The Reporters, described scarcity of fuel, the disparity in prices and other problems associated with the scarcity as “unfortunate.”
“The realistic solution to fuel scarcity in Nigeria can be effectively overcome and made history,if the government can repair all the refineries and make them work at full capacity utilisation.
“There is also the need for the appropriate authorities to check the rate of corruption in the sale of fuel, especially at the filling stations.
Pieces of evidence reveal that some filling stations delibrately hoard fuel in the afternoon, thereby creating artificial scarcity only to sell the product to black marketers in the night,who in turn sell same product to the public at high price, Mr Johnson Adams said.
Our Correspondent reports that though the federal government has not announced the new price for fuel pegged atleast N179 per litre, filling stations in Lokoja, sell fuel between N275, N280 and in some cases too,N300 per litre as at the time of this report on Sunday.
