Abakaliki
The Special Assistant to Governor Francis Nwifiru on Petroleum, Mr Nwafor Nnaemeka John said, the recent hike in fuel pump price was as a result of unavailability of the products in most of the private depots across the country.
Mr Nwafor disclosed this to our reporter during inspection of some of fuel stations in Abakaliki, the state capital, Wednesday.
He noted that the situation is not peculiar to the state but a national problem. He called on federal government to expedite action in the supply of crude oil to the private refinaries especially, the Dangote refinary as such will help to curtail the problem of unavailability of the products and it's attendant scarcity been withnessed in the country.
"The recent hike in the fuel pump price is a very big menace. The situation has gone off hand but it is not peculiar to Ebonyi alone. It is almost every where in Nigeria, as far as Petroleum product is concerned, more especially, PMS. There's a little bit of scarcity now. Most of the depots i have called lodged a complain of scarcity, unavailability of the products in most of their private depots, you know, private depots help NNPCL depots, they work hand in hand. The unavailability of the product in most of the private depots has actually been the cause of the recent increase of the petroleum product now.
"We have been moving round most of the fuel stations trying to monitor what is actually happening and to ensure that they did not take advantage of the current unavailability of the products to inflate the price at the detriment of masses.
"We make sure that we regulate the amount in the depot sequel to what is their pump price here in their respective fuel stations so that there will be no much hike in price so that the masses will not suffer.
"The subsidy has given the oil marketers the freedom to sell the products based on what they buy at the depots. But our job here is equate the depot price and the price at the fuel stations and make sure they did not inflate the price above what it supposed to be.
"Government should make sure there's adequate supply of crude oil to private refinaries especially Dangote refinary. This can actually help a lot to bring down this particular pressure on PMS. They should be no sabotage. I urged the players in the oil industry to release crude to the private refinaries especially Dangote refinary to actually curtail this menace. It is actually biting hard on the masses because no one goes out without the use of petroleum products.
When they supply crude to Dangote and we no longer depend on importing petroleum products it will go a long way in curtailing the problem currently facing us in this country".
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