Product scarcity hits Calabar

Kerosene scarcity has hit Calabar and its environs as the price of the commodity now ranges between N350 and N400 per litre, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

NAN survey on Sunday showed that the product was not available in any filling station in the Cross River capital and its suburbs.

However, the product was available only in surface tanks in parts of the city, where dealers sold it at N350 per litre.

The survey revealed also that the itinerant retailers sold the commodity between N380 and N400 per litre, depending on the area.

Mrs Grace Nja, who resides in Ikot Efanga area of the city, said that she bought the product at N280 at a filling station early last week.

Nja alleged that petrol product marketers in the state sold their consignments wholly to some middlemen from neighbouring states, instead of the consumers within the state.

“I went to buy kerosene and I saw some women from outside the state carrying big cans and buying the product in large quantity.

“So, they are the ones that buy up the entire supply in the state,” she said.

Another resident, Mrs Elizabeth Sunday, decried the situation and described it as greed on the part of the product marketers.

“This is bad for us the poor people of this country. I am a widow and I don’t have money to buy gas cooker.

“Now the price of kerosene is out of my reach and it is hard to feed nowadays.

“My appeal is that government should do something to change the situation in the interest of the masses,” she said

Contacted, Mr Esue Obi, Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Calabar Depot, attributed the situation to lack of supply to the depot.

“As I speak, there is no kerosene in Calabar depot and all the tank farms in the state, Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Those having the product now travelled to Lagos to buy it.

“So, when they add the cost of transportation and other sundry expenses, the price must be high; that is the situation now.

“Importers are complaining of lack of foreign exchange. So, we don’t know when the product will be available, ‘’ Esue said.

ALSO READ: Forex responsible for Kerosene's price hike — IPMAN

Mr Ekpenyong Lazarus, a resident of Akamkpa in Akamkpa Local Government Area, told NAN that the product sold for N400 per liter in the area.