Economic activities in Lagos State have come under serious threat following the sudden scarcity of petrol and diesel as well as hike in their pump prices.
As at 8am on Wednesday, long vehicular queues were noticed at numerous fuel dispensing stations in the state with buyers making frantic efforts to purchase products for their means of mobility.
Although the immediate cause of this panic buying and products scarcity is yet to be ascertained, increment in products prices has already noticeably been effected by products dispensers as boldly indicated in their sales machines.
While some service stations currently sell their stocks of products for N900 per litre of petrol and N1,600 for diesel as against the previous N570 and N1,000 per petrol litre of petrol and diesel, respectively, some sell for as much as N1,100 per litre of petrol and N1,750 per litre of diesel.
Investigation by The Nigerian Observer in Lagos State shows that unauthorized hawkers, majorly referred to as black market operators, are currently having a field day making huge profit from product scarcity as users who could not access through legal means have recoursed to them irrespective of their expensive rates.
Products dispensers and sales coordinators who spoke on conditions of anonymity blame this ugly situation on insufficient product supply which has made them to be partially out of circulation, stressing that depots should feed service/petrol station adequately.
Consequently, the scarcity and hike in pump prices of products have equally brought about their attendant sharp increment in transportation costs such that a distance like Iyana-Iba to Iyana-Ipaja which was N300 now costs N700, while Oshodi to Mile 2 which was N200 by bus (danfo) is now N500. Similarly, Badagry to Mile 2, formerly N600, now goes for N1,500.
A cross section of transporters and commuters spoken to were of the views that while government should stop trading blames, the cost of fuel should be radically brought down to its barest minimum while sales are adequately monitored and subsidy urgently returned to petroleum products marketing in the interest of the common man.
