Make petrol available to check rising fares, NURTW urges FG

The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Niger on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to make petrol available at the approved rate.

The NURTW Chairman in the state, Alhaji Ibrahim Sarki, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna.

He said availability of petrol at official rate would enable the union members to recoup their investment and review the current transport fares in the state.

NAN reports that the state chapter of the union recently increased transport fares owing to non availability of fuel.

NAN also reports that widespread scarcity had resulted in the sale of fuel at between N190 and N200 per litre at the black market.

``We want the Federal Government to make fuel available at the approved price of N86 per litre to enable us revert to the old transport fares because passengers are complaining.

``The current economic hardship is already having its negative effect on passengers then all of a sudden increase in transport fares.

``So it has not been easy with our passengers and on our own side, we don’t buy only fuel to keep our vehicles going but we have to maintain them,’’ he said.

He explained that the hike in transport fares had reduced the number of commuters per day.

The union chairman said that transport fare from Minna to Kontagora, which used to be N900 was now N1,100 while Minna to Sokoto was now N3,500 as against N3, 000.

Also speaking, Mrs Grace Ayuba, a fish seller in Shiroro, told NAN that she had reduced her shuttles to Minna for business from three to two times a week.

She said the scarcity of fuel was biting hard while the price of fish had gone up, with customers complaining.

Mr Abdullahi Isah, the Controller of the Department of Petroleum Resources in the state, told NAN that the fuel situation would normalise next week.

``These queues you are seeing across the country will disappear because government is already doing something about it.

``The Federal Government is doing something that I will not want to disclose now to ensure enough fuel supply in the country.
``Hopefully by next week, there will be enough fuel supply in the country,’’ he said.

Isah said that Niger, which was supposed to get 30 trucks of PMS per day, gets only two.

``What we are doing right now in Niger state is to make sure that the small quantity available is not diverted but sold to the people at N86 per litre.

``We need 30 trucks of PMS in the state to ensure enough supply but you can see that we have just two which is inadequate,’’ he said. (NAN)