Lagos residents groan as black marketers sell petrol at N350 a litre
The current fuel scarcity is biting harder on residents of Nigeria’s commercial city, Lagos, as the product is sold for N350 a litre at black market.
There have been massive queues at filling stations dispensing the product since last week. The queues are also causing terrible traffic gridlock, causing more pain to other road users.
On Monday, TheCable witnessed queues across some filling stations while some others shut down services in the state — a situation motorists have had to put up with for about one week.
“We used to sell the product for N250 before now. But as the product has increased at fuel stations, we had no choice but to increase our price to N350 a litre,” a seller in Satellite Town said.
Across the state, transport fares have also increased due to petrol scarcity.
“The price of the fare increased from N150 to N200,” a commuter said
“I had to queue under the sun for 12 minutes to board a minibus. Just imagine. Yesterday, I also had to queue to get petrol. It is tiring.”
In a phone interview with TheCable, Mike Osatuyi, national operations controller of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said limited petroleum products at depots caused the scarcity.
“We don’t have fuel. If there is fuel, then we have something to sell. The little that’s available, we are buying at N205. When you add transport, that’s about N213 before you can add your profit. That’s the truth,” Osatuyi said.
“Even if you want to buy at N205 now, you won’t even see to buy.
“NNPC said the fuel is available, but we don’t see it. If we are able to see the fuel, that’s the only way we can confirm that the product is available. Let’s wait and see for the next few days.”
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