Fuel scarcity has hit Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, and its environs ahead of the indefinite strike called by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria.
The scarcity, which started as soon as the union warned of the impending strike last Wednesday, worsened on Sunday when major filling stations in the town shut down their facilities.
Taking advantage of the refusal of the major oil marketers to dispense fuel, a handful of independent marketers jerked up fuel prices on Sunday afternoon and sold off their stock before long.
A private filling station by the Port Harcourt Motor Park, sold a litre of petrol for N75 on Sunday for about two hours before claiming to have run out of stock.
Nearby, major oil dealers, did not open to customers but their outlets became avenues for touts to sell the products in jerry cans to motorists.
Nobody could say where the touts got their stock from and sold by the side of the major filling stations all day at exorbitant rates.
For instance, a 20-litre can of petrol, which should be sold for N1300, was sold by the fuel vendors at the black market for between N2000 and N2500 in Port Harcourt Old Township and Diobu.
The Eastern Zonal Chairman of the NUPENG, Comrade Achese Igwe, confirmed the decision of the union to embark on strike with effect from Tuesday (today) in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Port Harcourt.
Igwe said that the strike had become imperative following the refusal of Wilbros Nigeria Limited, an American oil-servicing firm based in Port Harcourt, to implement an agreement on the conditions of service for Nigerians working in the company.
Igwe said that the agreement, which was reached between the union and top officials of the firm in May this year, was due for implementation since June but regretted that the company had been evasive on the matter.
The NUPENG boss regretted that after the endorsement of the agreement specifying the conditions of service for the Nigerian workers in the firm, the company sacked the manager who headed the negotiation team and brought in a legal adviser from America to renegotiate afresh.
Igwe lamented, �We have held over 17 meetings in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt to ensure the implementation of the agreement but the firm is not forthcoming on it.�
�What the company is telling us now is that it wants to fold up and leave Nigeria.�