Fuel scarcity bites harder

FUEL scarcity, which surfaced in Lagos some days ago, took a turn for the worse yesterday, forcing commercial vehicle operators, who got the commodity to operate, to hike their fares by almost 100 per cent in some routes.

Many people who could not afforded the increase in fares were stranded at bus stops. Some vehicles that ply Oshodi to Mile 2, increased the fare by hundred percent. The fare from Oshodi to Toyota, Five Star, and Iyana Isolo bus stops that used to be N50 was raised to N100, while Oshodi to Mile 2 was raised to N200 or more. It used to be N100.

Commenting on the ugly development, Ogar Thomas, a civil servant, said government should intervene and settle the scores between it and the marketers.

“It is the commuters that are facing the problem. At the black market, a 10-litre fuel was sold for N2,500 instead of N870. Whatever is the problem, government should please help to resolve it now,” he pleaded.

A commuter, Soje Tosho, from Mowe, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, in Ogun State, said there were long queues of vehicles at some of the filling stations along the expressway. The queues, he said, caused traffic hold-up on the highway.

According to him, emergency sellers of fuel dotted the expressway, selling the product in jerry cans.

“When the driver of the commercial bus I was traveling in, asked one of the sellers the price of a 10-litre jerry can, the young said it was N2,500. That translates to N250 per litre,” he said.

The Guardian’s attempt to speak to some oil marketers could not yield result, as none of them was willing to talk.