Commuters in Kogi were left with deep frowns of disgust as some of the Lokoja-Okene bound drivers had openly expressed their hearfelt displeasure on Sunday as fuel prices had hit at least ₦230 per litre in Okene and the Lokoja local government areas of Kogi State.
A visit to some of the filling stations in Okene on Sunday had shown reports that the current scarcity of fuel in Lokoja, which is the Kogi State capital, has extended to Okene, with some of the major filling stations without fuel to dispense to motorists.
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In a few filling stations where fuel had been sold, it had been sold at a cost of at least ₦230 per litre, while some of the drivers had revealed that the price could be as high as ₦270 in other filling stations in the area.
Commenting on the development, a Lokoja-Okene bound commercial driver, Issa Mohammed, described scarcity of fuel in Okene as worse compared to Lokoja, where the product is sold between ₦220and ₦225 per litre.
“The current hike in the price of fuel, especially in Lokoja and Okene, is fast going beyond the purchasing capacity of an average commercial driver to cope with.
“Hardly can any commercial driver in Lokoja and Okene can boast of making a tangible profit at the end of the day’s business as all our proceeds go for the purchase of fuel which continues to hit the roof,” Mohammed told Newsmen
“Many of us are still in job because we have no other profession to fall back to, not that there is much profitability in the job again.
“We will be happy if the government can help us check black marketers in the fuel business so we can at least make some profit or break even in this business.
“The terrible hike in motor spare parts, accelerated wear and tear of our vehicles, and bad road are also issues giving us sleepless nights as much of our proceeds go for the purchase of spare parts and repairs of our vehicles.
Mohamed’s colleagues, who aligned with his observation on the issue, called on the federal government to supply more fuel to the filling stations as a natural way of forcing down the price of fuel to the official level.
