Kogi workers, others groan over high cost of transportation as fuel scarcity bites harder
Story from Rabi’atu, Lokoja
It’s no longer news that the scarcity of petrol is having negative effects on the life of the people of kogi state, but the worst affected category of Kogi residents are the state workers who are having trouble finding their way to their various government offices.
Some of the workers who lamented their predicaments to Neptune Prime in Lokoja decried the situation where they are paying heavily for transportation to offices and back home said they have exhausted all they have on transport fare without any hope in sight as to when salaries for the month of February would be paid.
Many of the workers who said that they had packed their vehicles at home, lamented that they can not afford to buy fuel at 400 per liter which is the prevailing price in the state capital.
The workers appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to urgently see to the payment of salaries to cushion the effect of the fuel scarcity.
It was observed that fuel now sells between N400 to N500 at filling stations and black market, respectively.
Upon Investigation conducted on Wednesday in Lokoja, majority of the filing stations in Lokoja, the state capital are hoarding the product and refusing to sell to the public.
“Most of fuel stations have the product, they only sell it to black marketers at night who later sell it to public at exorbitant prices as high as ₦600 per litre according to sources.
A visit to A.A. Rano filing station by the popular Ganaja junction, saw a very long queue stretching from the station to a distance of more than a kilometer.
The situation is the same at the Mobil fuel station by Obasanjo square, where a long queue was also noticed.
Though the two stations are selling at the approved pump prize, motorists, however, said the correctness of the quantity of fuel dispensed could not be ascertained, while those who bought in cans alleged that the meters may have been adjusted
A visit to Master Energy station located at the Lokoja International Market, it was discovered that the station was selling the product for N240 per liter.
Unfortunately, the NNPC fuel stations in Lokoja and its environs were not selling, a situation the commuters said had forced transporters to increase their fares.
The workers have called on the Federal Government to resolve the issue, as the situation was already telling on them and their families.
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