06 March 2014, Ilorin – As fuel scarcity persists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, black marketers have inflated the price, selling for N700 and N750 as against N500, per gallon.
This is just as it was gathered that many of the black marketers have adulterated the product in order to make more money.
Black marketers were seen around Maraba and Post-Office areas in the night displaying gallons of petrol to attract prospective buyers.
However, the worsening fuel crisis within Ilorin and its suburbs has compelled consumers to resort to buying in black market.
Most filling stations, including those owned by major and independent marketers, have shut their gates to customers, claiming they have run out of stock of the commodity.
Some filling stations were seen selling a litre of fuel for between N120 and N130, with long queues of cars and motorcycles.
However, NNPC Mega stations and few major and independent marketers sold at official pump price of N97 per litre, it was learnt.
A visit to the NNPC station along University Road Tanke, Ilorin, showed that petrol also known as Premium Motor Spirit, (PMS), was dispensed to the motorists who formed long queue.
At Maraba area, a black marketer who preferred anonymity, confirmed to our correspondent that he sold a gallon of petrol (mostly five litres) between N700 and N750 and sometimes N800, depending on the desperation of the buyers.
In a telephone chat, the Special Assistant to the state Governor on Petroleum Monitoring, Alhaji Lawal Isiaka Amubieya, however, denied the existence of black marketers within the Ilorin metropolis, adding the state government was making efforts to resolve the seemingly unending fuel crisis.
The persistent fuel crisis contradicted the claims made by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation that the problem, which hitherto confronted major cities nationwide, would subside after it released about 100 million litres of the commodity to the marketers.
Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers’ Association (IPMAN) in the state, Alhaji Abdulrasheed Olopade, blamed the fuel crisis on vandalism of petroleum pipeline, adding that marketers have stopped loading from the Ilorin NNPC depot owing to unavailability of the product.
– Daily Trust