Residents of Ondo state are groaning due to the sudden decision of petroleum marketers to hoard petroleum products and hike the prices of the essential commodity in the state without any prior warning.
Information made available to Climax News Hub revealed that the decision by petroleum marketers to hike the pump price of petrol was already having negative effects on the people of the state.
At the various filling stations visited, the new pump price jumped from N200 that it was sold for on Monday morning to between N300 and N600 after President Tinubu’s inauguration speech.
Some of the stations visited were also closed with their personnels declaring that their closure was because they do not have petrol for sale.
The few major petroleum marketers who were selling petrol were doing so at the rate of N195 and their stations were packed with residents who were struggling to buy the commodity before they stop selling.
While residents complained about the sudden hike in price and how it was affecting their businesses and homes, personnels of petrol stations also insisted that the hike was necessitated by the cost of buying the product at the depots.
A commercial tricycle driver who identified himself as Mr. Gbenga described the hike as a problem to people in his line of profession as they were already struggling to find passengers and may face tougher times if the situation persist.
“We that are driving these tricycles will be blamed by the people if we increase our fare. People will not want to understand our reasons because they have enough issues to spend money on. Now that we are still charging N100 per drop, people are still complaining. What will happen if we are forced to increase it to N150 or N200? The government should do something about it.”
A Taxi driver, Mr. Oluwabamidele called for a quick intervention from the government to help stop the suffering the situation is forcing on the people.
“It was yesterday that we heard that subsidy has been removed by the president and we are already buying petrol at N300 per litre today. People are already choosing to trek because they cannot afford to pay the N100, N150 charged by drivers.”
“How will drivers like us feed our families? I don’t blame them because because they will rather choose to trek and use the money to buy food. That is the level of hardship in the country in the country.”
“We are appealing to the president to consider people like us when making a decision on this issue. The gap between the rich and the poor in this country is very wide. Some people have the money to buy petrol at any price but it is we the masses that is suffering.”
A Human Rights Defender, Mr. Akindolie Bolawa described the situation as unfortunate as petroleum marketers are capitalizing on the words of President Tinubu to exploit the same people who are already feeling the brunt of the economic hardship in the country.
“the announcement of fuel subsidy removal should not have been made at this critical time. The announcement is causing a crisis in Ondo as we are now seeing queues everywhere. Some filling stations are selling petrol at N300 and above and it has led to increment of transport fares. We are not pleased with this development. Some of the stations are closed and not selling petrol at all. All these happened after yesterday’s announcement that subsidy will be removed. Subsidy has not been removed and people are already suffering like this.”
“the fuel these stations are selling now have been bought before yesterday. They are only doing this to our people because of what the new president said about subsidy removal. We are calling on the government to intervene in the matter in the interest of the people. The price of other essential commodities will start rising if nothing is done. It will make life very difficult for the masses. The people needs the government now.”
A filling station attendant who chose not to reveal her name insisted that her station did not hike the price arbitrarily. She said that the new pump price was because they bought the petrol from the depot at a higher cost.
“The fuel we are selling now was brought in yesterday night. We went to the depot since about three days ago and just got fuel yesterday. We did not increase the price as we wish. We only increased our price because of how much we bought petrol at the depot. It is the cost price that affected our pump price.”
