Lamentations as petrol sells for N300/litre

The price of a litre of petrol has risen to N300 in Hadejia, a town in Jigawa state, according to NAN.

A correspondent of the agency in the state, observed that many petrol stations in Hadejia had no product to sell as a result of scarcity of the product, leading to drastic drop in the number of commercial buses on roads in the area.

Petro was only available at black markets, where it sold at N300 per litre, well above the N87 approved pump price.

Ibrahim Hassan, a commercial bus driver, said he was experiencing difficulties getting petrol to buy.

Hassan said the situation was affecting his daily revenue as “I am spending much on fuel due to the lingering scarcity”.

The driver said he had resorted to carrying more passengers to make up for the expenses on fuel.

“I am overloading passengers to avoid incurring losses,” he said.

Baballe Haruna, treasurer of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the area, condemned the non-availability of petrol.

Haruna said the trend had exposed members of the union to hardships, adding that most of them had parked their vehicles.

He appealed to the federal government to adopt practical measures to end scarcity of petroleum products in the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari has ruled out increase in pump price of petrol, directing the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to ensure that the price remains at N87.