MAJOR oil marketers, yesterday, adjusted the price of petrol to N185 per litre, from N169 per litre, in all parts of Nigeria.
Despite the expectation that the new price would encourage supply to ease out shortage, checks by Vanguard indicated that there were long queues at the outlets of the major marketers that had limited stocks of the product, while those without the product simply shut their gates against customers.
It also showed that there were limited queues at the outlets of independent oil marketers which continued to sell in excess of N300 per litre.
Further checks indicated that the private depots did not open for business yesterday in Lagos, a development that culminated in dwindling stocks.
Consequently, illegal hawkers were seen in different parts of Lagos, Abuja and other cities hawking the product at prices, ranging from N300 to N500 per litre, depending on location.
This was more pronounced as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA continued to lack presence at filling stations and other important locations.
This, it was gathered, gave room for irregularities, especially diversion, hoarding and arbitrary pricing of the product.
The Chief Executive Officer of NMDPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed, did not respond when contacted called repeatedly yesterday.
(VANGUARD)
