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They raised concerns saying the shortage affected the daily lives of families; disrupted work and even had a toll on the price of basic commodities.
Speaking to AYV, a number of drivers (taxi, poda poda, kekeh, okada) that were interviewed stated that they were deeply concerned when they started hearing about an imminent hike in the price of fuel. They added that no sooner they heard this, most of them rushed to filling stations only to find that some filling stations had actually hiked the price while some other filling stations informed them that they had run out of fuel.
Shop owners and general traders including hawkers complained that the fuel shortage scare was both an advantage and a disadvantage. They further explained that it was an advantage for some traders because they used the brief scare period to hike the price of their goods to make extra profit while on the down side it was disadvantageous for customers and even for traders. However, they maintained that at the end of the day, the reality dawned on them that they should not use any negative situation to profiteer as such behaviour is totally anti-social.
Earlier however, the petroleum regulatory agency issued a press release warning all oil and petroleum dealers to adhere to the current petroleum product prices, adding that the shortage of fuel in the country does not warrant any change or hike s in the price of petroleum products in the country.
