A former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiohmole has lamented the scarcity of fuel and the hike in the pump price of the product, claiming he recently paid N1,000 for a litre. 

In several parts of Nigeria, queues have resurfaced in filling stations with many buying the product for as much as N500 and above for a litre.

It, however, appears the masses are not the only ones affected by the crisis as the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain said he recently bought the product at an exorbitant price during one of his campaign tours.

“On one occasion, I ran out of fuel and I had to pay N1,000 for a litre. Now, that is not funny! Somebody is responsible for that,” he said when he featured on Channels Television’s election programme The 2023 Verdict on Sunday.

The former national chairman of the APC said in spite of the huge resources Nigeria spends on payment of fuel subsidy, the product is still scarce and the price is beyond the reach of most Nigerians.

“As we speak, we are spending almost N7 trillion. The minister of finance spoke to the fact that we are spending about N7 trillion for fuel subsidy and yet most Nigerians found themselves paying much more than what the market rate would be and yet we have the Petroleum Equalisation Fund,” Oshiomhole added. “So, people are responsible for this.”

He said fuel scarcity is not peculiar to President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, describing the development as a “perennial problem”.

“But that does not make it acceptable,” he said.

Oshiomhole, who equally spoke about the naira note redesign and swap policy, described them as deceptive and a ploy to truncate the elections.

“You could see that the intention of the Bank is not to eliminate abuses but to stop the elections from taking place,” he said.