Environs,S

LAGOS JANUARY 27TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Petrol scarcity has hit Warri and its environs, following fears that the federal government might remove fuel subsidy as planned.

Although the federal government has given an 18-month suspension notice of the plan, it however, did not stop unscrupulous petrol station operators from hording the product.

Filling stations monitored by our correspondent in the Warri Garage and other areas in Warri South and Uvwie Local Government Areas were without the product.

We gathered that there were long queues of vehicles and persons with different sizes of jerry cans in few filling stations monitored.

Meanwhile, black marketers were seen taking advantage of the situation as they sold the scarce commodity even by the sides of the filling stations.

All the managers and pump attendants who were approached for comments said that they were ignorant of the cause of the scarcity

Efforts to hear from Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as at the time of filing this report were unsuccessful.

However, a renowned public analyst, Chief Akpojotor Adjarho who spoke to our correspondent on the issue, noted that the scarcity was artificial as he noted that the Federal Government of Nigeria had shelved the planed removal of petrol subsidy.

He therefore called on the relevant authorities to apprehend filling stations that hoarded fuel. (DELTA STATE NEWS BULLETIN)