Nigerians In Uproar As Fuel Prices Skyrockets

Motorists have resorted to sleeping overnight at filling stations due to the prevailing scarcity of fuel.

It was observed on Sunday morning long queues at NNPCL stations situated at the Cement bus stop along the Lagos-Abeokuta motorway and Maryland in Lagos State.

Also, there was a long queue at Total filling station along Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way and Maryland inward Ikorodu Road; it was swarmed with vehicles occupying three lanes, causing traffic on the road.

It was also gathered that the long queues stemmed from the hike in the price of the product at the few stations dispensing it, which are mostly on the fringes of the nation’s commercial city.

Commercial drivers, who spoke to our correspondent, expressed deep concerns over the prevailing scarcity, saying it is crippling economic activities.

Sunday Jimoh, a commercial driver who resides in Ikorodu, lamented that the hunt for scarcity was tiring, saying it had denied him comfort at home.

“I have been sleeping inside the bus for over 3- days because there is no fuel. It is very bad because we didn’t expect this from our new president.

“It is very bad because I cannot go to my house. I live in Ikorodu. There is no fuel for me to go home,” he said.

Tolani Olaniran, an Uber driver who resides in Magboro, Ogun, travelled to Lagos in search of fuel and urged the government to alleviate the plights of the citizens.

“I live in Magboro, but the filling stations there sell for N800, so I had to come here to buy at N619. The thing is not that easy; since yesterday around 6 p.m., I have been looking for fuel. I started from Ogba and went to MRS in Computer Village. They were selling kegs, and I waited for over an hour in the queue before they scattered everything, and they said they were not selling again.

“From there, I went to Total at Mobolaji Bank-Anthony. I was there till 11 p.m.; they told us they were expecting delivery, so we did not see any trucks, so we left there and came to Northwest at 12 a.m. They just started selling around 7 a.m.,” he said.