From: Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Residents of Asaba, the Delta State capital, have continued to celebrate the Yuletide amidst lamentations as a result of over 100 percent increase in the cost of internal transportation due to the present fuel scarcity across the nation.
A cross section of residents interviewed by our correspondent, decried the high cost of transportation from one location to the other within the metropolis.
One of such residents, Miss Oge Dumebi, said she took a tricycle popularly known as keke from Akwuabulu area along Dennis Osadebey Way to Ibusa Junction at the cost of N80.00, a distance that hitherto cost just N40.00.
Also, Amaechi Okonta who resides along Summit Road told Daily Sun that he coughed out a princely N150.00 to get to the popular Ogbegonogo Market where he bought food items for his household.
Okonta said he was shocked when the tricycle operator demanded the N150.00 fare when he alighted at the market, lamenting that he had to deep his hands into the money he had reserved for shopping to save himself of unnecessary embarrassment.
“I was shocked when he asked me to pay him N150.00 instead of N70.00 or at most N100.00 because of fuel scarcity. I have to take money meant for shopping to settle the keke man. I did not expect it all. The situation is getting tougher by the day,” Okonta confessed.
The increment affected all internal transport routes within the capital city due to biting fuel scarcity.
As at the time of filing this report, most NNPC filling stations were still without the product. A mega station operated by a private concern along the Asaba-Onitsha expressway was still dispensing at the approved pump price of N145.00 per liter, albeit very long queue of vehicles.
The said mega station has been the saving grace for most Asaba residents and travelers to the eastern part of the country before and after the Christmas.
As at Wednesday, another filling station of a major marketer within the metropolis was said to be dispensing at N145.00 but with a longish and chaotic queue.
Some other filling stations monitored by our correspondent were not selling while the popular Rainoil that has more of the filling stations in Asaba was dispensing at the rate of N180.00 per liter, the same old rate it sold the product before Christmas.