By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
As the scarcity of fuel in many states of Nigeria,including Kogi, heightens with no end in sight, motorists and other users of the product in Lokoja and its environs have cried to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited,NPDC, to bail them from shylock petrol attendants in the area.
Investigation conducted by the Correspondent of The Reporters on Friday in some of the filling stations in Lokoja indicates that many of the attendants have constituted themselves into clique, forcing motorists and motorcyclists and others to pay extra money before selling the product to them.
In one of the filling stations at Gadumo, belonging to a first generation energy company in Nigeria (name witheld), a male petrol attendant, spotted in red uniform, was seen on Friday morning collecting between N500 and N200 from motorists who wanted to buy fuel without their consent.
When challenged by one of the private car owners who wanted to full the tank of his car, the petrol attendant retorted,”that is the situation in now in Nigeria. If you want to full your tank, you must pay me extra N500 to fill your tank sir.”
The owner of the car was force to coughed out N500 for him to buy fuel at full tank.
The ugly development did not end at the level of harassing and collecting illegal money from motorists, as the colleagues of the shylock petrol attendant were also busy collecting N200 each from commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders and those buying the product in jerrican.
The man, described as the manager of the filling station, who was around scene during the unfolding drama,pretended not to know what was going on, even as shout,anger and abuses rained on the male fuel attendant
One of the drivers, Mr Mathew Okalawon,who said he paid extra N500 to buy fuel at full tank, in an interview with our Correspondent, described the attitude of petrol attendants, particularly those of the filling in question, as ‘becoming unbecoming”.
“We are buying fuel at a very high cost,yet, the petrol attendants are adding more pain to our injury,by charging us illegal money to buy the product What type of thing is this in this country,” he asked.
“NPDC should beam their search light on the behaviour of the petrol attendants in Lokoja, with a view to bringing the negative development to an end.
“The management of this filling station will tell the public that they sell fuel beyond the official pump price, but make us to pay with extra cost through their shylock attendants to buy fuel. This is not fair and must be arrested.
” The checkmate should start from their managers who turn deaf ear to the systematic thievery by their attendants, because without the approval of the managers, these terrible attendants could not have indulged in such illegality,” he urged.
“This particular filling station hardly gets regular fuel supply for sale to the public, but each time it gets,its attendants usually leverage on the opportunity to reap where they did not show,” he noted.
Meanwhile, apart from the NPDC filling station,located on Felele highway in Lokoja that sells at the official pump price of N179 per litre, other filling stations sell between N250 and N305 per litre.
Consequently, commercial drivers have increased their fares, a development that attracts between 50 and 100 per cent increase in intra and interstate journeys.
Our Correspondent reports that a journey from Lokoja to Okene, which used to cost N500 has up to between N1,000 and N1,200, depending on the bargaining power of the passengers.
Similarly,transport fare from Lokoja to Okene has skyrocketed from N500 to N1,000, Lokoja to Ajaokuta,Idah,Kabba, Ankpa, Egbe, and other areas in the state has also attracted alarming percentage increase in fares.
Our finding also revealed that the hike in transport fare has reflected sharply in the bincreased cost of goods and services, especially food items among others in the area.
Motorists called on NPDC limited to find lasting solution to the scarcity of fuel in the country, especially now that December with the usual increase in traffic has arrived.
