Scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, popularly known as petrol is currently being felt by residents of Ondo State.
With the fillers already in the air in the last two days that the product might be scarce, the situation became evident on Saturday as most filling stations in Akure, the Ondo State capital were under lock and keys, while the few ones selling the product were fully occupied by motorists and other consumers as they struggled to fill their tanks and cans.
When DAILY POST went round town to monitor the situation, long queues were seen at the Akure NNPC Mega station, Owo/Ilesha road as well as Showboy filling station at Shasha area of the state capital.
Meawhile, Bovas filling station, and AA Rano along Oke-Ijebu which have been the preferred choice of consumers in Akure were also not dispensing fuel, as their gates were locked.
The situation was the same in the Southern Senatorial District of the state as residents of Okitipupa have to embark on journey of about 30 minutes drive to Ore before they can get the product due to the non availability of the commodity in the town.
However, effort to speak with the management of the filling stations proved abortive as they were not willing to speak to our correspondent.
Expressing concern on the development, a cab driver, who identified himself simply as Tunde, lamented that it took him more than 40 minutes to fill his tank at Showboy filling station after searching for the product endlessly in various parts of the state capital.
“Only God knows what could have caused the scarcity, because they are not even selling it above the pump price, but the queue is just too much.
“I was on queue for more than 40 minutes before it got to my turn. I believe we should have gone past this stage in this country,” he lamented.
Also, a motorist who was on transit through the state disclosed that the scarcity rumour began when the news filtered in that government might hands-off payment of subsidy after its meeting with the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
“The way our government manage situation like this in this country baffles me.
“How would you explain a situation that you intend doing something and you keep denying it?
“All this we are seeing today is nothing but a fallout of the advise by the IMF that the our government should stop subsidy payment, which they’ve agreed to.
“So with all these their denials, I don’t know what they actually take us for.”
For another consumer of the product, Tobi Ologuleko, he maintained that alleged plan to remove subsidy was a scam.
“They (government) are just deceiving us. For how long will they keep removing subsidy.
“I think what all Nigerians should do now is for us all to not support partial removal of subsidy but outright removal. With this, we will know the actual amount of what we are paying for and nobody will come in future to tell us that he wants to remove subsidy,” he said.
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