Onitsha Residence Panic As Fuel Price Hits N750/Litre

Residents of Onitsha and its environs, Thursday woke to another increase in Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly know as petrol, from N700 per liter to between N730 to N750 in different petrol stations within Onitsha and its suburbs.

The recent increase followed the shutting down of all the fuel stations in Anambra State on Wednesday, following fuel dealers alleged meeting in Awka the Anambra State capital, which lasted for about five hours, before they opened their station to attend to the public at about 3:30 to 4:00 pm.

It has been the habit of the fuel station owners in the state, that anytime they want to increase the prize of PMS, because nobody checkmates their activities, they shut down their stations on the pretest that they are holding a meeting, which always ends in increase in the product. There has never been anytime they hold similar meeting that the prize of PMS did not go up.

Prior to the Wednesday meeting that saw the prize of PMS rising to between N730 to N750 per liters on Thursday, the product was selling for N700 per liter, but after their meeting barely two months ago when the product rose from N660 to N700, people have been managing with the N700 pump prize, but as if that did not satisfy their greed, they held their last meeting yesterday and jacked up the prize to N730 to N740 per liter.

Lamenting the situation and the suffering over the gullible activities of this product dealers and the hardship unleashed on them,some commuters and residents, reacted angrily, threatening that one day tgey will confront the dealers.

A motorist, Mr Eze Okwudili and some traders in the Onitsha Main Market, Ochanja Central Market and Ose Okwudili Market, who spoke with Vanguard, namely, Stella Ebo, Duru Emmanuel and Okachukwu Okpara, respectively, accused Anambra State Government of encouraging the excesses of the PMS dealers.

In their respective comments they said that if the Anambra State government had swooped on any of the PMS dealers and their filling station, by shutting one down for one week, others will learn their lessons. What they want is for the residents and commuters to rise up against them, one day that will happen because the rip-off by those dealers wicked and heartless is becoming unbearable and unacceptable.

Unfortunately, some of them cannot withstand shutting down of their iel station for two days, they are hungry greedy dealers, once government pounce on them and maintains it’s stand, they must comply, they are hungry and greedy, they can’t withstand ban for one week, government is not just serious in taming the twist in them.

According to Okwudili, “One day we will show them that our quietness over their activities is not cowardice. We will shake them one day, it happen, since, the state government does not want to checkmate the activities of those wicked, callous and unreasonable fuel station owners, it will hit them like tsunami, it will come like #ENDSars uprising and I pity them because some of them will loose their stations. They think that we are happy with the situation they are subjecting us almost every two month’s, they wake up shut their stations claiming to having a meeting and three hours later’ fuel prize will increase..”

“As you witnessed yesterday, filling stations were closed on Wednesday and it caused panic and commercial bus drivers and tricycle operators cashed in on that and were collecting N500 and above from commuters on area they used to collect N200 per drop, and as you can see, now the greedy PMS dealers and their stations have achieved what they want which is increase from N700 per liter to N730 and N750 per liter.”

Another angry commuter, Okpara, said, “The annoying thing about the fuel marketers in Anambra State is that they are are so greedy that even when government announces the reduction of pump price of fuel, they will never sell at the new government prize with the claim of not exhausting their old stock, but that day Mr President said “fuel subsidy gone”, less than thirty minutes, they jacked up their prize to N550 from N220 fuel was selling in Anambra State, before that announcement.

“They also have no uniform

prize for fuel now in the state, each filling station sell according to how they want to sell and government is doing nothing to stop their greedy and illegal activities. We will rise against them one day, so they know that we also have a right”