Fares go up as fuel scarcity cripples S’East

Fares have gone up on most routes in Anambra State following increase in the price of fuel from the normal N87 per litre to about N200 in most filling stations.

Added to the ordeal of motorists in the state is the shady deal by officials of NNPC mega station in Awka which has resorted to selling fuel at night to other independent marketers who, in turn sell at exorbitant prices in their stations.

Apart from the NNPC mega station along the Enugu –Onitsha expressway in Awka, no other mega station in the state has been selling fuel in the past two weeks, although people passing through such stations at night say they see trucks loaded with drums collecting fuel from those stations.

Many independent filling stations do not sell any longer, thus creating scarcity. The effect of the high cost of fuel is that many vehicles have been off the road, thereby eliminating the usual traffic on most major roads in the state.

As a result of the hike in the price of fuel, transport fare from Awka to Onitsha which used to be N200 has increased to N300, while a journey from Onitsha to Enugu has increased from N300 to N500.

Also, those travelling from Awka to Abuja and Lagos now pay N8000, as against N4000 paid previously on Toyota Siena.

In Abia, fuel scarcity has crippled economic and social activities as motorists find it difficult to fuel their vehicles.

Also due to protracted power outage in parts of Umuahia, the state capital, particularly around Factory Road area that share transformer with government House, the people have been groaning in darkness as they can’t get fuel to operate their generators.

In Aba, a litre of petrol is dispensed by markerters at N200 while at the black markert, it is sold at between N250 and N300.

In Umuahia except at the NNPC filling station on Enugu-Port Harcourt express-way with a queue that stretches over four kilometres, other marketers sell between N180 and N200.

The story is not different in Imo State where several vehicle owners have parked their cars, following the soaring pump price of premium motor spirit, PMS, which now goes for N200 and above per litre, in the state.