While the Cross River State government has put in her best efforts in trying to stage the 2015 Calabar Carnival, it has been discovered that the biting fuel scarcity in the country, may bar many people from making it to Africa’s biggest street party, set to hold on Monday, December 28, 2015.
Painfully, it was discovered by www.calitown.com this morning that even if people make it to Calabar, a few marketers of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS or petrol in the capital city, have perfected plans to hide under the scarcity and are already selling fuel at outrageous prices and making mind boggling gains to the detriment of the public. For example, at the Propel Filling Station, close to Flour Mills, operators of the station wary of the wrath of the Petroleum regulatory agency, display the approved pump price of N87, while fuel is actually sold in the station for between 120 – 140 naira a litre. When our reporter questioned the rationale behind what the station was doing, she was told privately that “we display the price government say we should sell so that the task force people will not close our station, but we tell our customers before we sell to them that we are selling at 130 naira a litre”.
Most marketers in the city have also resorted to primarily selling their products to black market operators, who in turn sell for as high as N300 – N400 a litre. They argue that they must make profit as what they are doing is business. Some marketers too sell their products only when they notice that most stations don’t have petrol, so they can make profits that are over the bar.
Government sources insist to www.calitown.com that these marketers, “who are mostly from neighbouring states see no reason, as their attitude show, why their actions should support what our governor is trying to achieve with the Calabar Carnival brand. For them, the Carnival and attendant participation can go to hell, as long as they make their money, forgetting that if government does not create a secure Cross River State, they cannot do business in peace, it ia painful”, as one government source put it.
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Why can’t we watch der show on TV? Der r just showing us pictures