Passengers stranded, as fuel scarcity hits C’ River

By Christian Njoku

Twenty-four hours after the declaration of President Bola Tinubu to remove fuel subsidy, fuel scarcity has returned in Cross River.

It would be recalled that Tinubu, in his inaugural speech, had declared that fuel subsidy which had been a lingering issue in the nation especially between Organised Labour and the Federal Government, was gone.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) went round parts of Calabar on Tuesday morning and observed that most of the fuel stations that sold the product 24 hours were all locked up leaving residents stranded.

NAN reports that at the Atimbo area of Calabar that had six active fuel stations, all of them were under lock and key and were not dispensing petroleum products.

In spite of the fact that two of these fuel stations had fuel tankers that came to discharge petroleum products, they were still not selling.

In one of the fuel stations visited by NAN, a male official who declined comment on the matter, claimed that they were only carrying out directives.

Mr Effiong Nsa, a mini bus driver who spoke to NAN, said that most of the fuel stations that were locked up had the products and sold fuel the previous day.

He said that they only stopped selling so that they could make more profit following the declaration of the new President on the issue of fuel subsidy.

“I know that all these stations have fuel, they are only trying to make more profit by buying at a subsidised price and selling at a price that would be determined after the subsidy removal.

“Right now, what I have in my vehicle is going down, immediately it finishes, I will go and pack the vehicle at home because there is no where to buy the product,” he said.

On her part, Mrs Juliana Adak, one of the passengers stranded at the Edim-Otop junction, said that the suffering was so much as she had been there for over 30 minutes without getting a bus to take her to her destination.

Adak called on the Federal Government to look into the matter, adding that it was too early for the nation to experience fuel scarcity with the new administration.

(NAN)