From: Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
Independent Marketers have increased the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) (petrol) to N260 per liter in JIgawa State following the continued fuel scarcity in the State.
Sources said that while supplies have dried up in the major marketers fuel stations, the few with the products hoard them and sell to black marketers at night.
A trip round Jigawa State shows that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and all major marketers had closed their filling stations in Dutse, the State capital and in parts of the State.
Meanwhile, motorists and other fuel users buying from the filling stations of Independent Marketers and black marketers by the road side pay for N260 and above per litre.
The fuel situation has worsened the high cost of living as prices of goods and services had increased by more than 39 per cent.
Findings by our reporter in the State revealed that the National Union of Transport Workers (NURTW) and National Association of Transport Owners (NATO) had increased the price of cost of inter and intra State transportation by over 30 percent.
A source lamented that the situation would negatively affect the irrigation and dry season farming as over 98 percent of farmers use fuel to pump water to their farms.
“Surely, if the price of fuel sell at this rate and the scarcity continues, petrol will be unaffordable for majority of farmers, he said.
A farmer, Umar Majeri, stated: “Federal government policy of food security is threatened by the current situation, If action is not taken, there would be definitely be failure in the production of wheat and other dry season crops this year.
Majeri noted that “flood disaster ravaged the State and many parts of the country, destroying rainy season farm products. And now, dry season farming would not be easy. In fact, it may not be possible for majority of farmers. Therefore, the federal government should do something without further delay.”