As at Wednesday, residents of Kaduna were groaning as black marketers sold Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol for N1,000 per litre, in parts of the state.
This comes amid the fuel scarcity that hit the country recently and has yet to abate. It was observed that motorists continue to queue for hours at petrol stations to buy the product.
In the capital city of Kaduna, the residents lamented that despite the assurance by the Federal Government to address the scarcity, the situation has continued to linger, even as they said they buy fuel at the black market at an expensive rate.
One of the residents, Abdulsalam Munir, told newsmen that he had been in the queue for over five hours, yet he could not buy petrol.
He, therefore, called on the Federal Government and state authorities to tackle the fuel scarcity for the overall good of Nigerians.
“I spent more than five hours following the line,” he lamented. “Since when I came, I haven’t gotten fuel and my car was on the line. “Up till now (in the afternoon), I haven’t bought fuel.
“Even when you go to the black market, we buy one litre for N1,000. So fuel is very scarce and we are calling on the government to put an end to this thing.”
Just like Munir, a passenger, Buhari Sa’ad, bemoaned the increase in transportation fare as a result of the fuel scarcity. Giving an instance, he said motorists usually charge N1,500 as fare from Kaduna to Kano, but the fare has increased to N2,000 as a result of the current situation.
“We are calling on this government to please consider our people because it is not all of us that have the money. Most of the people cannot travel because of this fuel scarcity,” he said.