Many of them who spoke confidently with a SaharaReporters correspondent in Akure, they said they decided to protest because the fuel crisis was making life unbearable.
Commercial drivers and taxis protested on Monday in Akure, Ondo State over the scarcity of fuel being experience nationwide. As a result of the scarcity, the drivers increased transport fares from N50 per drop to N100, forcing passengers to abandon the vehicle and trekked long distances to their destination.
During the protest, the commercial drivers used their vehicles to block the popular Oba Adesida main road in Akure, they also refused to carry passenger who would not to pay the new transport price of N100.
Many of them who spoke confidently with a SaharaReporters correspondent in Akure, they said they decided to protest because the fuel crisis was making life unbearable.
They lamented the difficulty to get fuel into their vehicles to transport Nigerians around the city and to home.
The drivers added that the situation had already forced some of their colleagues to park the vehicles home and not to work.
They also accused the main distributors in the oil sector of the State of hoarding fuel for the independent marketers, whom they accused of selling at outrageous costs to the consumers of the product on the black market.
A driver, Bayo Adelabi, told a SaharaReporters correspondent, that they now buy fuel in Akure at the rate of N200 and N300 per liter, which is over the amount approved by the federal government, which is N87.
"We now buy petrol at the rate of N200, N300 per liter, while black market between N350, and N400. We felt this doesn't pay for us, and we decided to increase the transport fare to N100 per drop", a protesting driver said.
It took the combined effort of the security agencies that include officers of the Nigeria Police Force, and Nigeria Army in Akure, to disperse the protesting drivers who had already caused a heavy gridlock on the main road of the city.