Petrol Price Stands At N100 In Taraba

IN Taraba State, marketers are yet to adjust their metres to the new pump price of N87. The price of the product as at the time of filing in this report is still being sold at N100 per litre.

  While some of the marketers claimed they are yet to receive directives from their head office to adjust to the new pump price, others vowed never to adhere to the directives pending when new products are brought into their stations.

  On the part of the NNPC mega stations in the state, the absence of technicians to adjust the metres to reflect the new price was identified as a major reason why the filling station is still selling at old price.

  With this new development, the chances of the price of food items and other goods reducing, according to some manufacturers and business owners who spoke to The Guardian, is very low.

  According to one of the marketers whose filling station is yet to adjust its metres to the new price, the reduction is “a welcome development” but the need for the authority to “ allow us to sell our old stocks at N97 or N100 per litre” has become necessary.

  The marketer who would not want his name in print added: “Athough it is a welcome development, but it is unfortunate that it is now that political activities are at their peak that government deemed it fit to reduce the pump price.”

  “Anyway, I do not want to delve into politics because I am also a card carrying member of the ruling PDP. But the truth is that for now we cannot adjust our pump prince pending when we finish selling all our old stock.”

  The decision not to comply with federal government directives as stated by him “is not our making, because we do not want to operate at loss. If the federal government actually mean business why did they not purchase all the old stocks or subsidise the price of the old stock for the people?”

  In the same vain, manufacturers, transporters as well as market men and women in the state have reiterated their readiness to reduce the price of their products as soon as petroleum marketers adhere to federal government directives.

  According to Baba Usman, a transporter plying Jalingo-Abuja, transport fare within and outside the Jalingo, according to him, “ will definitely reduce provided owners of filling stations adjust their price.”

 As at the time of filing this report, high cost of transportation and market products, have been on the increase, following the scarcity of petroleum products that hit the state before the Yuletide.

  Speaking on the subject matter, a lecturer with the state university, could not understand why the federal government did not reduce the petrol price drastically since the price of the product dropped at the international market.

  “If the government is sincere, they should have well told Nigerians the exact amount they have made since the price drop.”

  Also pleading for anonymity, he felt sad that the federal government did not tread the path of other oil producing countries that reduced the price of the product “since,” adding, “I can tell you that this reduction is aimed at securing the votes of Nigerians. And as soon as we give them our votes, I am assuring you that they are going to jack up the price of the product than what we have before. I must confess to you that the reduction is not because they have the interest of the people at heart but because of their selfish reasons.”

  The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Marku Ishaku Magaji, said the reduction is “a welcome development.” 

  He stated that the Federal Government should have pegged the pump price at N50 per litre, instead of the N87.

  He added that “government should have as well put in place relevant machineries to ensure the immediate implementation” of the new price.

  Taraba NLC, he said would not fold its hands and watch owners of filling stations thwarting such efforts, noting that “we are going to reach out to the various unions in the petroleum sector in order to ensure the implementation.”  

  Stressing the need for the marketers and filling stations owners to as a matter of urgency adhere to the directives so as to erase the wrinkles that have presently taken over the faces of the masses, the federal government, he said, should take further steps by making sure that the petroleum products are affordable.

  Believing that the process of implementation “is a gradual process,” marketers, he added, should not take advantage of the situation by refusing to adjust to the new pump price.