Street urchins, also known as Area Boys, have cashed in on the current fuel scarcity in major cities in Nigeria to make quick profit as five litres of petrol now sell for as much as N1,500 in the black market (N300 per litre).
At Dapsey Oil filing station, Oke Aro, Ogun State,it is like a tug of war to buy the important commodity, even as the Area Boys now rake in fortunes for ‘assisting’ individuals who cannot stand on queues for hours.
Daily Independent gathered that the Area Boys collect as much as N1,000 as bribe to help anyone who does not want to join the queue.
Because the Area Boys want to make quick cash by assisting those they collect bribes from, they disorganise the queues, thereby preventing the fuel attendants from selling in orderly manner.
At the RainOil filling Station in Oke Aro, the fuel attendants had to shut the gates to prevent break down of law. There, one of the attendants told our reporter that, although there was fuel in their storage, they could only resume sale of the product when orderliness is assured.
One of the customers on queue, who gave his name simply as Ayo, described the N1,000 bribe per keg being demanded by the Area Boys as ridiculous, attributing the development to the impatience of many Nigerians.
He said: “It is ridiculous to pay N1,000 bribe to buy N2,000 fuel. It is our impatience that is killing us in this country.”
One of the customers, who paid the bribe to fill his keg, (name withheld) argued that he was in a hurry to get to work while there was no fuel in his car, so he had no option than to patronise the touts.
No comments:
Post a Comment