From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has condemned the current artificial scarcity of petroleum products in Rivers State occasioned by leadership squabble in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
The party has expressed shock that Rivers residents are forced to buy fuel at N700 per litre in the black market.
Spokesman of the party in the state, Mr Darlington Nwauju, expressed this yesterday, in Port Harcourt, noting the excruciating hardship Rivers residents were made to pass through.
He expressed: “The APC is shocked that Rivers people and businesses in Rivers State have been forced to pay upwards of N700 per litre of petrol from black market traders due to the failure of IPMAN to settle its internal leadership issues.
“We, in the APC, believe that Rivers residents should not be paying for the lack of maturity and absence of management tact clearly being exhibited by the factionalisation of IPMAN.
“Nigerians in different spheres of life must lead exemplarily by respecting the rule of law and operating within limits that decorum permits.”
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Nwauju called on the ruling party to intervene quickly in the artificial fuel scarcity to save lives and the economy of the state.
“We, therefore, call on the Rivers State government not to ignore the people’s hardship and to quickly intervene as any responsive and responsible government would do in order to save all those living and doing business in the state,” he stated.
“This call has become expedient because the cost of living and doing business in the state has multiplied geometrically within the last 72 hours.”
The APC said that the fuel situation in Rivers has been worsened by the absence of an Energy or Petroleum Resources commissioner, who should have been supervising or handling issues arising from that all-important sector.