By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

As celebrations for Christmas and the New Year continues to rent the air in Anambra State, with several activities ranging from marriages, age grade meetings, masquerade festival, among others, travellers travelling within the state and its environs have decried the unprecedented hike in transportation occasioned by fuel pump price increase.

At the moment, pump price for fuel is between N330 and N390 in Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi and other parts of the state against the N270 per litre sold during the Yuletide season.

As a result, the cost of transportation and prices of commodities has sharply increased in the state.

This is just as travellers going to other parts of the South-East for the New Year celebration were made to pay as high as over 300 per cent in transportation fare to get to their destination.

For example, a tricycle drop which before now costs N100 presently costs between N150 and N200 depending on the distance.

Also fares for intra-city shuttle has increased by as much as 300 percent as transporters now collect N300 for distances that earlier cost N100, as commuters and commercial transport operators engage in hot arguments and quarrels.

Similarly, a journey from Awka to the commercial city of Onitsha which used to be N500, was increased to N1,500 while Upper Iweka to the Main Market, Upper Iweka to Holy Trinity and others, which were formerly N100 went up to N300.

A trip round major cities of Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi, Ekwulobia over the weekend showed that while motorists express concern over the hike in petrol, passengers bear the brunt as they are subjected to extra spending.

The drivers lamented that the price of petrol had continued to rise without anybody coming to their rescue.

They accused marketers of arbitrarily hiking prices because of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

According to a tricycle rider who simply gave his name as Ejiofor, he said that while they struggle to meet up with the weekly pay for the hire purchase contract, there is also the government tax to pay, hence they can’t help but increase the fare.

“Fare prices are doubled because of the increase in pump price of petrol. But, even if it comes down, keke fare will increase to N150 per drop, no matter how short the distance is, so we can meet up,” he added.

A traveller, identified as Mama Chioma, who lives in Onitsha but travelling to Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, lamented that the increase in transport fare had put additional burden on the travellers and household items.

She called on the Federal Government to intervene in the petrol price issue and save the masses from unbearable hardship.

Another traveller and a trader in Nnewi, Mr. James Udo, who described the situation as very pathetic, blamed it on the greed and opportunistic nature of transport operators who see the Yuletide as a period to amass wealth.

In his response, a commercial driver with the Star Sunny Motors in Onitsha, Mr. Goddy Ikem, justified their actions, insisting that transport operators were now buying petrol at a very high price which has adversely affected their returns.

Ikem, in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states, said”“It is not our problem; the price we are charging is reflective of the high cost of buying petrol.

“This is even affecting us the more, but we have to remain in business to service our people, especially during this Yuletide period.

“The high amount we buy petrol now is even affecting our returns and our profits have dropped by about 50 per cent, commuters should understand our plight too and know that it is not our fault.”

The fuel situation was like that at all the filling stations visited by our correspondent across the state, except at a filling station located at Tarzan, near Onitsha which was selling at N180 but with large queues of vehicles and customers scrambling for the product.

For a commercial driver plying Enugu-Onitsha route, he said that though the present fare may seem big to passengers, that what they have left at end of the day after rendering account is nothing enough to take care of one’s family.