It is no longer news that the scarcity of premium motor spirit (PMS) is having negative effects on the lives of the people of Kogi state but the worst affected categories of Kogi residents are the state workers who are having trouble finding their way to their various government offices.
Some of the workers who lamented their predicaments to news reporters in Lokoja decried the situation where they are paying heavily for transportation to offices and back home.
They said they have exhausted all they have on transport fares without any hope in sight as to when salaries for the last month of February would be paid.
Many of the workers who said that they had packed their vehicles at home lamented that they can not afford to buy fuel at 400 per liter which is the prevailing price in the state capital.
The workers appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello to urgently see to the payment of salaries to cushion the effect of the fuel scarcity.
It was observed that fuel now sells between N260 at filling stations and N600 at the black market.
Investigation conducted by reporters on Wednesday in Lokoja revealed that majority of the filling stations in Lokoja, Kogi state capital, are hoarding the product, refusing to sell to the public.
“Most of fuel stations have the product. They only sell it to black marketers at night who later sell it to public at exorbitant prices as high as ₦600 per litre,” our sources alleged.
A visit to A.A. Rano filling station, by the popular Ganaja junction, saw a very long queue stretching from the station to a distance of more than a kilometer.
The situation is the same at the Mobil fuel station by Obasanjo square, where a long queue was also noticed.
Though the two stations are selling at the approved pump prize, motorists, however, said the correctness of the quantity of fuel dispensed could not be ascertained, while those who bought in cans alleged that the meters may have been adjusted.
A visit Master Energy station located along the Lokoja International Market, it was discovered that the station was selling the product for N240 per liter.
Unfortunately, the NNPC fuel stations in Lokoja and its environs were not selling, a situation the commuters said had force transporters to increase their fares.
The workers called on the Federal Government to resolve the issue as the situation was already telling on them and their families
