by Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna

In Kaduna, petrol customers, mostly youths, reportedly threatened to burn down a filling station, following an attempt to stop the sale to enable the station owners adjust the fuel pump price, while on queue.

Investigation revealed that, panic-buying of petrol by both private and commercial vehicle owners resumed as a result of sudden queue due to hoarding of and hike in price of petrol across filling stations from the usual N190/N197 to N450/N500 per litre.

The hike in fuel price, which occurred Tuesday, was immediately accompanied with the usual increase in the cost of Bus Town Service drivers, who resulted to increase in transportation, leading to fears of also increase in cost of goods and services.

According to our Kaduna reporter, who monitored the situation, the long queue surfaced, following the alleged inaugural speech of President Bola Tinubu that, “The era of fuel subsidy is over,” adding that “there will be no fuel subsidy anymore.”

Accordingly, our correspondent also reported that Kaduna residents, who woke up to meet the sudden hike in the cost of litre of petrol, took to filling stations in mass in search of fuel, knowing the spiral consequences of the development.

It was also gathered that, some filling stations, in including Dullahi, in Sabon Tasha area of Kaduna South, reportedly stopped the sale of the product on hearing about the increase to adjust their pump price, which sparked up crises as customers threatened to burn down the station.

Findings revealed that, most of the petroleum marketers have already shut down their filling stations, while the few stations operating at low key are selling them far above the normal price.

All the station managers, who spoke in anonymity, expressed fears of increase in the cost of depot price of the product beyond the normal price any moment, after dispensing the current fuel at normal cost N190 per litre.

All efforts to get a government official to react proved difficult, due to the exigency of the moment surrounding the coming on board of a new government.