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•Fuel now N500/litre
By Chinwendu Obienyi
24 hours after President Bola Tinubu, kick-started the long, tortuous journey towards pulling the economy from the brink, by declaring that fuel subsidy was gone, panic buying, hoarding and long queues continued across petrol stations in major cities, especially Lagos, as some stations promptly stopped selling to customers.
This was even as the nation’s sovereign dollar-denominated bonds rallied on Tuesday, rising as much as 2.94 cents, with the 2029 maturity rising to 87.31 cents by 12:15 GMT while the dollar in the parallel market sold at N770/$1.
Tinubu, on Monday, made a bold move to end Nigeria’s controversial fuel subsidy that has plagued it for dcades. This announcement sent shockwaves down the spine of residents and motoristswith many venting their frustrations over their inability to get fuel products across different parts of Lagos.
Daily Sun investigations revealed that some petrol stations sold fuel at N500- N550 per litre in areas like Orile Iganmu and Lekki Phase 1, while NNPC stations which sold at N185 at areas like Marina and Ajah saw long queues.
When Daily Sun visited a fuel station (Ardova) in Lagos, it noticed that the manager came out to declare to frustrated ccusto ers they were no longer dispensing.
Asked why the station was ordered to stop sales, the manager declined to comment and provided no reason. Further findings revealed that many commuters in Lagos were stranded yesterday as there were few commercial buses on the road. Also, drop-off prices for the popular mobility app, Bolt, have increased, leaving many Nigerians frustrated.
For instance, Bolt now charges between N5000 to N7000 per drop from Airport Road to Gbagada. Meanwhile, Maryland to Yaba now costs N3,300 to N4500, while Yaba to Obalende costs N8,650.
This fallout could go on for weeks which could spiral out of control. In the past, petrol stations have shut down and hiked petrol prices, just to take advantage of customers.
Reacting to the development, a market operator who craved anonymity, said, “Those erring stations have not truly suffered any consequences and this may go on if the government does not step in quickly because that statement from the President was ill-advised. He should have started with addressing issues in the power sector before delving into fuel subsidy.
This action leaves the poor masses, who have no choice but to bear the brunt of actions stemming from ill-prepared policy statements from an unprepared government”.
Some market operators have said that Tinubu’s position on the need to review current monetary policy will be a welcome development that will quicken positive change in the economy.
