11 March 2014, Onitsha – Anambra State government vowed, Monday, to ensure petrol was sold at the official rate of N97 per litre.
The product had sold in the state at between N120 and N140 per litre in the past two weeks, affecting adversely economic activities in major cities of Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi and Ekwulobia.
Chairman, Anambra State Committee on Procurement of Petroleum Product Distribution and Regulation of Prices, Mr. Damian Okwudili Obi, who made the vow, however, explained that the high cost of fuel was not peculiar to the state, but a nationwide problem which the Federal Government had already addressed squarely.
He said: “This is a nation-wide problem, but I am assuring the public that the Federal Government is taking care of the problem, so people will not start getting involved in panic buying.
“The product availability will soon be everywhere. Recently the NNPC and Federal Government took a bold step and as I am talking to you there is loading going on day and night.
”This is to make sure that the masses are not suffering, people should exercise patience because within two or three days time everything will return to normal.”
Obi also announced that a task force had been set up in the three senatorial zones of Anambra State to enforce the sale of petrol at N97.00 per litre, adding that all petrol stations had been directed to return to the official pump price as it were.
”Part of our job is the regulation of prices. We have a committee and inside the committee, we have a kind of task force that goes around the stations.
“We divided the task force into three zones, the central, south and north senatorial zones and each group is charged with the responsibility of correcting this problem. We also have leaders that go about monitoring the distribution and sale of the product,” Obi added.
– Enyim Enyim, Vanguard