Motorists and commuters in Makurdi, the Benue state capital and other parts of the state have continued to groan over the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), or fuel which sells for between N360 and N420 per litre.

The price of the product in most of the filling stations visited in the state capital has remained high despite assurances by the government that measures have been put in place to ensure that the product is dispensed to motorists at the government-approved price.

Findings indicated that most of the major marketers in Makurdi town hardly have products to sell to desperate motorists and motorcyclists.

However, most of the filling stations that are owned by Independent marketers enjoy a steady supply of the product which they sell far above the government-approved price.

The development has forced commercial transport operators to maintain very high fares for both inter and intra-city transportation.

A commercial motorcycle operator, Malachi Gbaa, who could not hide his anger and frustration over the matter, pointed out that the product was selling for so high in the state due to a lack of proper monitoring by relevant government agencies.

He said, “the marketers are selling at any rate they prefer in Benue because nobody is motoring what they are doing. Do you know that if you go to neighbouring states fuel is sold at a government-approved price? But if you enter Benue state fuel sells for between N360 and N420 per litre; why.

“And the worse part of it is that major marketers have refused to sell to motorists. It is only Independence Marketers that always have products to sell.

“So the question in the mouth of many is why do the Independent marketers who sell for so high, get the products while major marketers are not selling?

“The allegation around town is that the major marketers are probably giving their products to the Independent marketers to sell at a very high price which is why they hardly have products to sell.

“You can see the implication of that, transport fares have not come down and people are spending so much on transportation whether you are travelling within the state or travelling from Benue to outside Benue.

“The people are going through untold hardship because of that, and something has to be done urgently to stop these shylocks from further milking the people,” he said.

The effort to reach officials of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority was unsuccessful.(Vanguard)

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