Students of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede and commercial bus drivers in Imo State, on Friday embarked on a peaceful protest over hike in fuel prices leading to blockades along Poly-Ihiagwa road.

The blockade compelled commuters to trek long distances before they could get to Owerri as the bus drivers parked their vehicles along the road and at the parks.

Some of the students expressed sadness over the whole situation that has led to untold sufferings.

They said the hike in fuel prices had increased fares more by over 100percent from N200 to N300 saying they could no longer bear the hardship as it had affected their feeding pattern. “Some of us can’t eat three square meals a day and many of us dip our hands into tuition fees to feed,” one of the pretesting students said.

A commuter, Emeka Ugo, lamented that things are always different in Imo when compared with other states, adding that “fuel subsidy was also removed in other states but the transporters hiked the fares more in the state to cause pain to Imo people.”

The drivers said that they protested because the filling stations had hiked fuel price which has adversely affected their business. They enjoined the government to “intervene urgently and bring the price down or find a way to cushion the hardship everybody is facing because of the fuel subsidy removal.

“If the government fails to intervene, transportation business will collapse. In fact, today, how many vehicles are you seeing plying the road? We were filling our tanks with N5,000 fuel but now with that amount you can only purchase less than six litres. Some of us now spend N20,000 a day on fuel. So, tell me how one can survive under such a situation.” (The Nation)

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