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Fuel scarcity, high food prices, others may mar Yuletide in Taraba

By Charles Akpeji, Jalingo
23 December 2022   |   3:15 am
With two days to Christmas, high cost of food and transportation occasioned by fuel scarcity seem to be taking the shine off the Yuletide celebrations in Taraba State.

PHOTO: SAM OLUSEGUN ALADE

CP promises hitch-free celebrations in Plateau
With two days to Christmas, high cost of food and transportation occasioned by fuel scarcity seem to be taking the shine off the Yuletide celebrations in Taraba State.

Consumers, who had been contending with rising cost of living, have been thrown into hardship, a situation that is threatening to rob them of the joy accompanying this season.

The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, which started like a joke across the country early this month, is observed to be getting worse in the state.

Apart from long queues at the few filling stations dispensing the product at a high pump price, prices of food items and goods had been on the increase in the state.

The devastating effect of the scarcity of the product is sharp increase in transport fares within Jalingo metropolis and its environs.

The sad situation in Jalingo, the state capital, is not different from other local councils of the state, as residents, who shared their experiences with The Guardian, were all lamenting tricycle operators have tripled their fares, a situation they said, was necessitated by the scarcity of petrol.

Commuters have resorted to trekking several kilometres to their destinations across the state.

The Guardian observed that filling stations dispensing the product now sell between N300 and N310 per litre, while the same goes for N400 per litre in black market.

Besides, a visit to Jalingo main market indicates that Yuletide may be a mirage for many families if measures are not urgently put in place by relevant authorities to make fuel available and at affordable price.

MEANWHILE, Plateau State Police Command has said that it has put measures in place to ensure hitch-free Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Bartholomew Onyeka, represented by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Alfred Alabo, while briefing journalists at the Police Headquarters in Jos, said the Command had already deployed officers and men all over the state to have a peaceful Yuletide.

He said: “We are leaving no stone unturned to ensure Plateau State is peaceful now and beyond this period.”

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