There is an apparent anxiety and expression of displeasure by the residents of Osun, as kerosene, which is the major cooking material now sells for N300 per litre around the state.
Findings by the DAILY POST on Monday revealed that there is an acute shortage of supply of the petroleum product, as a result of hoarding by petroleum marketers , who were speculating hike in the price of the product.
At the Gbongan-Osogbo road, virtually all the filling stations were not selling the product, including the two NNPC stations located in the axis.
Also, only one filling station, out of about 15 stations sited along Osogbo-Iwo road was selling kerosene at an exorbitant rate of N300, against the N83 benchmark.
Speaking with DAILY POST on the development, a member of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in the state, Alhaji Olorunsogo Amuda said, although the hike was regrettable, he quickly added that the development was unavoidable in the face of shortage of supply of the product from Monsinmi depot.
According to him, the situation has made many marketers to concentrate only on Premium Motor Spirit (Petrol) and NGO (Diesel) and completely forget about kerosene because of its market “uncertainty.”
However, the Manager in one of the filling stations around Oke-Oniti, in the Osogbo metropolis, Mr Soga Adegbule blamed marketers for the hike, saying the sudden jack-up in the price of kerosene has nothing to do with the supply, claiming that some marketers resolved to hoard the product to create ” artificial scarcity “since that is no more possible in the case of petrol due to the partial deregulation.
Adegbule argued that marketers in the state always have their ways on any issue as a result of absence of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in the state, calling for urgent government intervention.
However, one of the customers at a filling station in Ede, Comrade Adeola, Fadugba, in an interview with DAILY POST lamented the level of frustration the hike has generated among residents of the state, ascribing the development to insensitivity on the part of the government.
Fadugba explained that a great number of people in the state make use of kerosene as a viable means of cooking, since many could not afford gas, he, therefore, called on the Federal Government to come out in the open and explain the rationale behind the hike, which has brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
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