Feul Stations Shut Down In Owerri, As Residents Groan Over Hike In Transport Fares

BY GRACE IGWEANYI

Filling Stations in Owerri shut down yesterday and have remained under lock and key today refusing to sell fuel to hundreds of motorists and commercial tricycle operators (Keke).

This has caused stampede in major filling stations as some motorists stayed all night hoping endlessly to get the product.

This development has led to fewer cars on the roads in Owerri and over 200% increase in transport fares.
Commuters complained bitterly over the development as some of them who spoke to INNONEWS.COM lamented the hardship the action of fuel sellers have caused them.

 Along the busy MCC road, two major filling stations were under lock and key, thus forcing fuel buyers to resort to buying the product from the black market at an exorbitant price.

A tricycle operator said he purchased fuel from the black market at N400 per liter.Other filling stations in strategic parts of the city have also followed suit shutting down pump stations.

A fuel station owner located along the busy Owerri- Aba road simply switched off his phone when INNONEWS.COM called him to comment why he shut down his station which has been besieged by frustrated motorists since yesterday

 However, this Newspaper had reported early yesterday that fuel marketers/Dealers in the State blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the cause of their action. They claimed that they are finding it difficult to source the product.

This was revealed by Christopher Amadi, Chairman, and Association of Imo State Petroleum Marketers/Dealers.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), he blamed the hike in the pump price of petrol across the state on lapses from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

  

He said aside from NNPC filling station on Onitsha-Owerri Road, every other station sells the product between N130 and N150 per litre as against the official price of N86.50 per litre.

  

“As I am talking with you, no marketer in Imo has loaded the product at the government-approved price since the new price regime by the government.

“All the products we sell are sourced from private tank farms and the owners sell above the government’s rate.

“Yet they would force you to agree that the product was sold to you at the government approved rate.

He decried the difficulty faced by the dealers in sourcing the products and regretted the condemnation of the marketers by the public.

“There is no product at the Aba, Port Harcourt and Markurdi depots.

These are the sources we get products to sell to the people in Imo State and other south East States.

Amadi said his members have been directed to stop buying the produced above the government approved  pump price from private tank farms.

 “ We do not want to be seen to be disobeying government directive on the sale of the product and we calling on government to do all within its powers to ensure availability of petrol.