RESIDENTS and traders of Lagos State, on Saturday, condemned the recent sudden increase in the price of kerosene.
Aside the increase in price of the product, there has also been scarcity.
A check by Sunday Tribune on Saturday, revealed that a litre of kerosene, at Mile 12 market on Saturday, sold at N250 per litre, while at Agbado-Oke Odo, it sold at N300 per litre.
According to the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), the official price for kerosene is N83 per litre, but marketers said the scarcity of the household product had resulted in hoarding and subsequent hike in its pump price.
Mrs Bose Aderibigbe told Sunday Tribune that “the masses that used kerosene have always been subjected to hardship and difficulty from time immemorial. When government said we should buy it at N50, we were buying at N120-N180 per litre.
Now government said N83 per litre, but we have been buying above that price. Now that there is acute shortage in supply, you can see we now buy at N300 per liter.”
Residents and petty traders around Shasha community in Alimosho local government areas of Lagos State, also expressed displeasure with the sudden scarcity and increase in the price of kerosene.
The scarcity, according to investigations, is traceable to the non-supply of kerosine to any of the depots in Lagos for two weeks running.
Trouble started, when news made the rounds that there was no drop of the commodity at the private and NNPC depots in Lagos.
The few filling stations that had the commodity in stock refused to sell, while those selling suddenly increased the price to N300.
At the filling stations at Bammeke area of Shasha as at Saturday afternoon, a litre of kerosine that was sold for between N230 and N250 during the Yuletide now sold for between N280 and N300.
The sudden increase led to confusion with many of the petty traders who spoke to the Sunday Tribune lamenting the effect of the scarcity and hike on people who could not afford cooking gas.
As of press time, many people, who were caught unawares, were seen rushing to the nearest filling stations to try their luck while the private sellers of the commodity refused to sell at all.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had earlier on Saturday said there was no drop of kerosene in the private and NNPC depots in Lagos.
According to the National Chairman Surface Tank Kerosene Peddlers (SUTAKEP) Branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Rotimi Benjamin, the product was last brought to the depot on December 27, 2016.
Benjamin, who is also the Vice Chairman, NUPENG Lagos Zonal Council, said the scarcity of kerosene had increased the price, making it unaffordable for the masses.
He urged government to come to the aid of masses who could not afford the price of cooking gas by providing kerosene to the depots so that it would be available in the filling stations.
“It is very sad that things are going on this way, for the past two weeks, there is no supply of kerosene to any of the depots in Lagos,” he stated.
However, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that most stations in the metropolis did not have the product in stock.
Few filling stations with the product sold at exorbitant prices ranging from N285 to N300 per litre as against the official price of N83 per litre.
Some kerosene consumers appealed to the Federal Government to assist the masses by making the product available for them at a reduced price.
Mrs Moradeyo Adisa, a widow, who said that she bought a bottle of kerosene for N250.
She said that the product was sold for N300 per litre in the filling station against the official price of N83.
She urged government to do something about it to make life more bearable for the masses.
Another consumer, a 67-year-old food vendor at Agege area, Mrs Kikelomo Joseph, said that she had turned to firewood for cooking because kerosene was expensive.
“Instead of spending over N3,000 on kerosene to prepare food for my customers, I have adjusted to using firewood, because it is a bit cheaper.
NAN reported that the official price of kerosene in all the NNPC and major marketers was N83 per litre.
Alhaji Olanrewaju Okanlawon, a factional chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), in Kwara State, ascribed the recurring hike in the price of kerosene to the unstable foreign exchange occasioned by the lingering economic recession.
Okanlawon told NAN in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Saturday that the association should not be blamed for the series of complaints emanating from members of the public, particularly from domestic users of the cooking substance.
He pointed out that it would be unfair to compound the economic situation of the people by needlessly jacking up the price of kerosene in an attempt to make additional profit.
According to him, the domestic cooking commodity was being imported and the situation would persist unless government adopted the right measures to stabilise the nation’s economy.
“It is necessary for the government to effect surgical operation on the country’s monetary policy to reduce over-dependence on dollar.
“It remains the determinant factor in the foreign exchange policy of the Federal Government,’’ he said.
The petroleum marketer, however, said that the effect of foreign exchange was not peculiar to the petroleum sector, saying it had become pervasive in every sector of the economy.
He urged government to devise a timely action to stem the tide.
According to him, as long as the dollar exchange rate was on the rise, the multiplier effect of it was rising prices of goods.
“It affects everything because almost everything we use in this country is sourced with dollar.
“If government can manage the monetary policy by ensuring that dollar comes down, prices of goods will come down too,’’ he noted.
Source:Tribune
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