Enugu commuters groan as petrol price hits N650 per litre

Commuters and motorists in Enugu have expressed deep pain over another hike in the pump price of petrol from about N530 per liter to N650 and above per liter.

The correspondent, who monitored the situation in different parts of the city, reports that both commuters and motorists are complaining over the new price of the commodity.

The areas visited included Awkunanaw, Abakpa Nike and Obiagu, where most of the service stations had scanty customers at the pumps.

The development has resulted in an upward adjustment in the intracity fares by additional N50.

For instance, from Gariki to New Market, which cost N250 before, now costs N300, while from Mayor Junction to Holy Ghost Market went up from N250 to N200.

Also, from Obiagu to New Market, New Heaven and Abakpa, which cost N150, now costs N200, respectively.

A commuter-bus driver, Mr Nelson Igwebuike, lamented over the hike, saying that it was bound to inflict more pain and sufferings on the people.

“Where do we run to in this country?”, he asked rhetorically.

A civil servant, Mrs Obiageli Okoli, said she would discuss with her superior in office on the number of days in the week to go to work.

Okoli said that it would be hard for her to go to work daily “with the current economic reality”.

A tricycle operator, Mr Sunday Onovo, said that the economic situation was becoming unbearable to the ordinary man.

“As you can see, there are many tricycles on the road but few passengers.

“People either chose to trek or remain indoors because of the fare hike and general economic hardship,” Onovo said.

The people urged the Federal Government to initiate urgent measures to reverse the trend and save the ordinary Nigerians from the “excruciating” economic downturn”.