The looming fuel scarcity in Kano has continued to bite hard as motorists struggle to buy the premium commodity.
The long lines noticed across a few outlets in the metropolis a few days ago eventually snowballed into full-scale scarcity as independent marketers shut down business.
Checks on filing stations along Murtala Mohammad Way, Ibrahim Taiwo Road, Zoo Road, BUK Road, Katsina Road, Maiduguri Road, and Zaria Road, all within the metropolis, indicated a total shutdown of businesses.
Incidentally, a few marketers who dispense the product outside the metropolis sell it for between N640 and N650 per litre. Expectedly, the ugly trend has pushed transport fares to multiple percentages.
Besides, the general scarcity and occasionally increased price of the product have trickled the volume of vehicular movements on major roads while leaving passengers stranded.
A motorist who identified himself as Mohammad Abubakar told our correspondent that he had since noticed the sign of scarcity in the last four when usual queues started building up in most of the filling stations.
Although Abubakar could not deduce what was responsible for the sudden scarcity, he raised concern that the situation may get worse in the coming days if the concerned authorities do not do something to address the challenge.
But another public transporter, Aminu Haruna Kiyawa, believed the fuel scarcity was a deliberate plan to increase the fuel pump. He told reporters that the government was not serious about the removal of the subsidy if, after the policy, Nigerians continued to feel the pain.
Reacting to the development, Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) Kano, Alh. Gana Grigri, insisted that no marketer can run the business at the present landing cost of product from Lagos. Alh. Grigri also lamented the hike in the price of diesel as a major factor responsible for the scarcity.
Similarly, another marketer, Alh. A.Y. Maikifi, worried that marketers who collected loans from financial institutions to run businesses could no longer sustain the present cost of transporting fuel from Lagos to Kano. Maikifi also lamented that the federal government has refused to settle the outstanding cost of bridging owed marketers.
According to Grigri, “I am sure no marketer can afford to continue with sales with the present cost of doing business. Moreover, IPMAN has advised members to shut down stations because of the situation. How much do you expect us to sell in Kano when we buy at N580 per litre and transport at N50? That gives you N630.
“Apart from that, the price of diesel per litre is N1,500. The cost of fueling a truck that conveys the product from Lagos to Kano is another challenge. We also want to beg the government to settle the bridging cost to allow us to continue our business. Members have not been paid in the last year”, Grigri noted.
