Petrol prices soar above N1000 per liter in Kano

Motorists are queuing up in large numbers at filling stations across Kano State struggling to buy petrol that is now selling at over N1,000 per litre.

The queues have been witnessed since last Thursday in Kano and neighbouring Jigawa at the retail outlets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) that were selling the product at N617 per litre. But the situation changed Monday morning as the queues extended to other stations selling at higher rates.

At some places like Kabuga on BUK Road and Tarauni on Maiduguri Road, our reporter observed traffic gridlocks caused by the long queues. The situation was the same across major parts of the city as only a few stations had the product, according to a resident, Haruna Ibrahim.

Mr Ibrahim said filling stations in the metropolis were charging as high as N1,000 as of Monday morning, adding that he bought the product over the weekend at prices ranging between N950 and N920 before the price skyrocketed on Monday.

A tricycle operator told us that after he bought petrol at N1,030 Monday morning at a filling station in the Tudun Yola area, he raised his fare to N300 from N200 for a trip from Kabuga to Kano line motor park.

The operator, who did not provide his name, said many of his colleagues were buying fuel from black marketers at exorbitant prices just to avoid the queues at filing attention.

Correspondent who went around petrol stations Monday morning found that some were shut while the others had long queues.

Some tricycle operators at the Aliko filling station on Maiduguri Road in the Kano metropolis blocked all entrances to the station after accusing fuel attendants of preferential treatment of car owners.

Jigawa State

Meanwhile, In Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, only one of the two NNPC outlets was selling fuel. The NNPC outlet in the Fanisau area on the Kano Maiduguri highway has remained closed for weeks.

At the Dutse NNPC sales outlet, our correspondents witnessed angry motorists accusing the station managers of segregating the queues to favour government officials and other well-to-do customers.

Some buyers alleged that the NNPC station in Dutse often shut down claiming to have run out of the product only to reopen at midnight to sell to black marketers. PREMIUM TIMES could not confirm this allegation.

A car owner, Baba Habu, told PREMIUM TIMES that the fuel queue in Dutse was caused by the NNPC hoarding the product.

“If the NNPC station at Fanisau and the one in Dutse can dispense fuel optimally, there won’t be queues and if two more NNPC stations are built in Dutse it will solve the problem of high prices and long queues,” Mr Habu said.

PREMIUM TIMES tried last Wednesday and Thursday to speak with the NNPC outlet managers in Dutse to respond to the allegations against them but they were not accessible.

(PREMIUM TIMES)