The scarcity of petroleum products has crippled economic and social activities in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. The scarcity of the products particularly petrol, is biting harder in the State.
Residents of the State woke up yesterday to discover that 80% of the filling stations were empty. Though the reason for the unexpected scarcity was not known at the time of going to the press, our correspondent who went round fuel filling stations in the state observed that most of the stations that had the product, were sold out in a few hours.
Motorists including commercial operators -taxi drivers, private car owners and those who use petrol for their generators in Cross River State went through tough time getting? the product for their uses. People are roaming the town in search of any filling station selling the product that is nowhere to be found or available to buy.
The scarcity of the petroleum products such as petrol and kerosene have caused untold hardship to the people of the state and this has resulted in the skyrocketing of prices of food stuffs, transportations, and other services including labour in the state.
For kerosene, very few filling stations have the product. Sadly, these stations increased the price of the product by over 100% that is from N50 to N150 and N200 a litre, while petrol is now N300 a litre as against N97. Interestingly, the black marketers are having a field day as a litre of fuel goes for N300 and more.