Fuel scarcity hits Jos

Vehicle owners in the Jos metropolis are experiencing biting fuel scarcity, forcing many of them to patronise black-marketeers.A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who went round the Plateau capital, reported that long queues, were seen at the filling stations which had fuel in stock.Tamen Fredrick, a driver waiting to buy fuel at the Mobil Filling Station opposite the Plateau Polytechnic, Jos Campus, told NAN that he had being in the queue since 6 a.m. but had not been served.Some petrol stations increased the price of petrol from the official N65 to between N75 and N85 per litre, leaving only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega station and a few others maintaining the official price.Suleiman Ahmed, a commercial bus driver, told NAN that he had stopped queuing for fuel at filling stations, saying that black-marketeers served him faster though at a higher rate of N95 per litre.The situation has forced us to increase fares so that we can recover the extra money we spend in buying fuel from the black-marketeers, he said.Meanwhile, commuters now wait longer to board commercial vehicles even at higher costs as few buses and taxis ply the roads.The Group Managing Director of the  NNPC, Mr Austen Oniwon, had earlier in the week dismissed speculations that the fuel scarcity was a ploy by the Federal Government to increase the price of the product.
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