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Kaduna Residents Groan As Fuel Scarcity Persists, Petrol Sells For N220 Per Litre

petrol

Despite the fact that the state is the host to the Kaduna Petrochemical and Refining Company (KRPC), the lingering fuel scarcity in the state has continued to unleash untold hardship and difficulty on the residents.
 

Residents of Kaduna State are presently lamenting as fuel scarcity continues to bite harder with marketers raising pump price to N220 per litre in the state.
Despite the fact that the state is the host to the Kaduna Petrochemical and Refining Company (KRPC), the lingering fuel scarcity in the state has continued to unleash untold hardship and difficulty on the residents.
It was gathered that most of the filling stations owned by major marketers in the state capital are currently out of stock, while the few ones that have fuel and are owned by independent marketers sell above the government-approved pump price of N165 to as high as N220 per litre.
Although it was reported that the long queues are not as heavy as it was early this year when the scarcity started, Channels TV reports that the few filling stations where petrol is available have applied the law of demand to fix their pump prices.
According to residents of the state, despite the assurance by the Federal Government to address the fuel scarcity, the situation has continued to linger, even as they say they buy fuel at the filling stations at an unexpected high price.
According to reports, pump prices in the state range from N185 to N220 per litre, a situation in which motorists have lamented its negative impact in their daily lives.
Meanwhile, the independent petroleum marketers have attributed the price hike to many factors including non-availability of the products, cost of landing from Lagos to Kaduna and the high cost of diesel to power their generators due to the lack of electricity supply.
But despite that the fuel price hike is being experienced across the country, especially in Lagos and Abuja, the Federal Government has denied that it is responsible for the situation.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, while speaking at the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) stakeholders’ consultation forum on regulations earlier this week, said that the government is still subsidizing petrol.
He said, “I can tell you authoritatively that we have not deregulated,” adding that “The government is still subsidizing. If there are increases in price, it is not from the government. It is probably from the marketers.
“But I will talk to the authorities to actually regulate the price. But this is not from the government. We have not deregulated.”
But subsidy claims have continued to skyrocket, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, claiming that petrol subsidy has reached N2.6 trillion in the first half of 2022. This has exceeded revenue generated from the sale of crude oil within the same period.