South-East residents groan over petrol scarcity, price hike

By Adeleye Kunle

Another round of fuel scarcity has hit South-East States. This is coming despite assurances from the Federal Government that there was enough petrol in stock for the populace.

Already, the price of the product now hovers between N200 and N230 in most States in the zone.

Reacting to the outbursts that resulted in the increase on the price of petrol, the federal government maintained it did not increase pump price of petrol above the regulated cost of N165/litre.

The Government also disclosed that the hike in the cost of the commodity, currently between N175/litre and N230/litre, depending on the location of purchase, was done by oil marketers.

But the marketers had argued that the N165/litre approved price was not sustainable and was contributory to the scarcity of petrol in many locations nationwide.

They eventually hiked the pump price of petrol and maintained the price increase for several weeks running without any resistance by the government.

Based on the clarification by the federal government on the purported incremental cost on petroleum products across the country, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), asked independent oil marketers to revert to the official depots’ price of petrol or risk unpleasant consequences