Some Artisans in Oye-Ekiti, in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti on Sunday, May 15, 2022, appealed to petrol dealers to stop hoarding and hiking prices of the product.
Some of the artisans who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Oye-Ekiti, said that owners of petrol stations hike their prices at any given opportunity so that they could extort money from them.
An artisan, Mr Sola Oguntuase, a hair stylist, appealed to the petroleum marketers to always consider their plights as they rely solely on the product to do their work and put food on their tables.
Oguntuase said that he wanted to buy petrol but most of the filing stations were locked even when they had the product in their filling stations.
He said that he had to travel to the nearest town to buy the product at N180 per litre.
“I am not happy with the attitude of most of the petroleum dealers in Oye-Ekiti.
“I observed that whenever there is news about intending scarcity of the product, those that have the product will not sell and if they sell, it will be at expensive rate.
“I want to appeal to them to consider the sufferings we the artisans, face because we rely solely on petrol to carry out our businesses,” he said.
Mrs Ronke Adebayo, another hair dresser, appealed to petroleum dealers and the government to come to their aid and reduce the stress of waiting endlessly at filling stations.
Mr Goke Ogunjobi, a furniture maker, said that inspite of the announcement by the NNPC that they had adequate product in stock for Nigerians, some petrol stations were still hoarding the product.
“It is quite unfortunate that indigenes of Ekiti who owns filing stations are the ones making us to suffer before we get fuel for our generators to carry out our daily jobs.
“The Federal government and NNPC said there is enough fuel in reserve, yet the petrol marketers are still hoarding and inflating price, this is not fair,” he said.
Ogunjobi urged the petrol dealers to make the product available for the residents and sell at N165 per litre to make it affordable for them.
A welder, Mr Biodun Oyedeji, urged the state government to help them regulate the price of petrol in the state.
“The residents especially the artisans suffer whenever there is scarcity or the petrol dealers decide not to sell the product to us at N165 per litre,” he said.
Oyedeji urged the petroleum marketers to be considerate and stop hiking the prices of fuel in their various filling stations.
(NAN)