Nigeria: Petrol costs N250 in Bayelsa State

Petrol is being sold at N250 per litre in some parts of Bayelsa state, a major oil producing state and the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Officially, petrol costs N97 a litre.
The development in Bayelsa, observers said, illustrate the gross incompetence of Nigeria’s rulers, in their inability to ensure that a state that produces crude can at, least have a corresponding facility to refine some for local use.

The paramount ruler of Aghoro community in Ekeremor Local government Area of  Bayelsa,  Ibamugha Ochigosin, who criticised  the high cost of petrol in the area said it has led to increases in the cost of transportation and the cost of living.
“There is no regulation here because fuel dealers sell the products at any amount that suits them and no authority challenges them.
“This is what we have been suffering all these years and with that, you can only imagine what it costs to buy cement and other building materials to build a house here,” he said.
Ochigosin said transportation cost of building materials was high, adding that the absence of an access  road to the community had militated its development.
“If we had a road linking the community to the outside world, cost of transportation will be less and within us, we can contribute to the development of the community,” he said.He appealed to the state government to build a road to  link the community with Sagbama, the headquarters of Sagbama Local Government Area, considering that the distance between both communities was short.“It takes us great pain to hire boats to convey goods and passengers to and from our community yet we are very close to Sagbama,’’ he said.He said other challenges faced by the community included marine erosion.