Many petrol stations in parts of Calabar and other major towns in Cross River State are selling fuel at the rates of N200 and N250 per litre as of Wednesday.
As a result, long queues were noticed in Calabar and other outskirts.
Findings at some fuel stations in Calabar South LGA showed that pump price was adjusted to read N200 while in Ikom and Ogoja, motorists bought fuel at over N250 per litre.
But at Kemsi Petroleum in the Atimbo area of Calabar Municipality, fuel was sold at N190 per litre with only about four pumps selling to the customers who were visibly panicky.
A senior attendant at the station said they now sell according to how they bought the products.
A number of favourite stations that dispense fuel regularly preferred to lock up their stations.
For instance, at Express Africana fuel station, the gates were locked.
The attendants said the product was not available.
Customers were seen struggling to be served first at one or two stations that still sold at the N165 approved pump price.
A taxi driver, Akpan Fidelis in the Mbukpa area of Calabar said he got information from his neighbours that there were queues at fuel stations forcing him to hurry out to buy so that he can do some business.
“I have heard rumours of fuel scarcity in the last few weeks in the news and so I was not surprised when they told me that the queues have resurfaced in Calabar”, he said.
Another driver, Mr Ade complained bitterly that as usual, the situation would cause untold hardship on residents of the city who are already weighed down by lots of challenges.
Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Cross River chapter, Robert Obi said there was no cause for alarm as the challenge was simply a supply gap.
He assured that more products have come into the country.
He adduced the reason to the contaminated products brought into the country three weeks ago from Belgium, adding that it has been withdrawn.
“In the course of sourcing for another product, that is why you see the supply gap. However, that challenge is being sorted out as products have started coming in, by tomorrow Feb. 24 at least, the issue will start to abate,” he said.
On the sharp increase of the product price, Obi maintained that in the last few days, private tank farms sold the product at over N180, which reason the retailers also pushed up their own price.
“When a marketer buys the product at N181 and by the time he adds the expenses to take the product to his station, it will amount to about N185, if you add N5 to sell at N190, I don’t think it is wrong.
“I had reported the matter to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) who prefers to come to the fuel stations to harass marketers, that they should go to the depots which are the sources but nothing was achieved.
“When I engaged the leadership of the depots, they said the marine logistics charges were increased, so, they were building the additional cost in the price of the product,” he said.
