By Olatunji Buhari
The prolonged scarcity of fuel and redesign of the naira notes and resultant long queues at fillign station has given rise to sharp practices by fuel attendants at filling station who capitalise on the scarcity of cash to rip-off customers who wants to buy petrol without physical cash .
It was observed that in a particular filling station around Ikeja area of Lagos State , that fuel attendants refuse to accept transfers as payment for fuel and rather direct buyers to Point of Sales (POS) operators who charge extra amounts on customers who need cash to pay for petrol.
The long queue at the filling station was due to the fact that customers are not willing to pay any extra amount in other filling stations where there are no queues or where there are fewer vehicles. It was noticed that when a customer buy fuels and does not have cash, the fuel attendant will signal the POS operator stationed at the filling station for the customer to transfer funds to him at extra cost.
A customer said when he transferred the money to the operator; N18,500 , he got N15,000, after deducting their commission of N3,500 and after he paid for the fuel, he saw the attendant returning the money to the operator when he was leaving.
When New Telegraph interviewed some of the people on the queue, they said they cannot afford to pay between N350-N400 to buy a litre of petrol because it will be creating a large hole in their pockets.
Tony Akinyemi, a businessman, said the filling station where there are no queues are selling at exorbitant price between N400-N500 and as such he cannot go to such places to buy fuel because the price differential is wide, adding that there is no cash in the system.
Akinyemi who claimed to have been on the queue for 3 hours said this experience has shown him who he will vote for as the president of Nigeria come February 25.
On his part Ojo Oluwasegun, a salesman with Coca-Cola, said fuel is being sold at his location at N185 while others are selling between N400-N500. When asked if the suffering will make him change his choice of candidate in the 2023 general election, he said there is no messiah anywhere that he is not ready to vote for anybody.
In the same vein, Mrs. Aderonmu, a legal practitioner, said she wont buy fuel at higher price and that there should be a universal price for all. She said she buys fuel at that particular filling station for N185, but where she is coming from they sell between N600-N700.
On a visit to Automated Tellers Machine (ATM) points in one of the generation banks in Ikeja and Ogba, a long queue that spilled to the next street were noticed with people mounting the gate and threating to pull down the fence.
One of the customers who spoke with New Telegraph , Ben Eze, a Trader said he was on the queue because he could not pay the charges of N1500-N2000 the POS operator’s charges for N10,000.
“I have been on the queue since and my tally number was 56, but as I speak there is no money in the ATM .
When asked if the situation will make him change his mind about who to vote for, he said certainty that he has the candidate to vote for in his mind.
The same challenge was faced by Kayode Adekunle, an Accountant, and Olamide Martins, a Development Enthusiast at either the PMS or ATM points.
