It is disheartening that those who are members of the Ondo State Task Force have constituted themselves to another albatross on the neck of the hapless masses of the state, over the manner in which they have added to the untold hardship foisted on the nation since December, 2017 when the fuel crisis surfaced.
It has become a sad occurrence that most marketers of the precious liquid in the state have insisted that they could not sell at the official pump price of N145 owing to the cost at which they buy and transport to the state. They also insisted that they sought for fuel at high costs from Ogun, Ibadan and Lagos at exorbitant rates.
Expectedly, they sell at the rate of N180 at most of the stations. Even most of those who sell at the normal rate of N145 often collect some extra cash raging from N200 and above, irrespective of whatever fuel you wish to buy.
While one must commend the hitherto good job of this Task Force, more so in the face of seemingly complicity of members of the Department of Petroleum Resources in the state who failed woefully not only in shirking their duties but also in turning blind eyes to the activities of the petrol marketers who sold at exorbitant rates in daylight, the Task Force now seems to have caught the sleaze bug itself. Or so it seems.
In the last few days, one noticed that there seemed to be a synchronisation in the way they work and the sale of petrol by marketers in Akure, the state capital, where the Task Force has concentrated its job. (leaving other parts of the State to the whims and caprices of the fuel marketers).
Whenever they are operating in one section of the Akure city, the marketers would be selling with reckless abandon at N180 in another section of the city.
Some examples would suffice here to buttress this.
Early this week, a petrol station (name withheld) at the entrance of the road leading to Oba-Ile, around the Fiwasaye Girls College, was sanctioned for selling above the pump price and its fuel was forced to be sold to the public at the normal rate. Very commendable.
But while this was going on, most filling stations around this axis closed shops. At the same time, filing stations in Oke Aro areas, Idanre Road, Express areas, FUTA areas, etc., were selling at N180 without hindrance, while the Task Force operated at the sanctioned petrol station till last night when the fuel was supposedly exhausted.
Today, it was the turn of those at Oba-Ile who had all the week closed shops to sell in relay at N180 without hindrances from the Task Force, while it moved to Oyemekun road, sealing and force-selling fuel at a station at Adegbola area of the city. I left Oba-Ile this morning to check somebody at the National Open University, along Idanre road in Akure, and behold, all the fuel stations here had closed shop! The Task Force is operating in the area until maybe weekend!
Yet, they all sold at N180 unfettered, all week; up till last night, as the Task Force was in another section of the Akure city.
From this observation which one has noticed over the time, the Task Force seems to have been compromised and should investigate and divest itself of whatever bad eggs within the system. These characters are giving information to these marketers about their movements. Or it should just close shop and let us continue to enjoy the current dividends of the Change we bought until another fire brigade solution is proffered shortly before the 2019 elections, to hoodwink us into yet another round of suffering and smiling; if we all feel our sufferings aren’t enough yet.
One would wish that the Task Force extend its tentacles to other parts of the state, to stem this act of extorting the people by the petroleum marketers at will.
Also, since the Federal Government has obviously failed in arriving at a solution to the fuel bogey that has defied exorcism, the Ondo State Government is enjoined to come up with a lasting solution to how fuel could be lifted at official prices from Mosinmi Depot in Sagamu, Ogun State. Obviously, the Ore fuel depot has become comatose. Isn’t it a shame that in Ogun State, fuel sells for N145, while Ondo State, which shares a common boundary, has to browbeat marketers to sell at prices which the latter insist is far below what they buy and transport to the state?
And can we know what has been the problem with the Ore Depot of the NNPC? If truly it is down, what is being done by the state government to implore the petroleum ministry in ensuring that the Ore Depot come back on stream soonest? Then, and only then, can the task force be able to do its work properly.
*Olabisi, a journalist and lawyer, lives in Akure, Ondo State
