Transporters and commuters in Abia have expressed serious concern over the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol.

Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited announced a new pump price from N617 per litre to N897 per litre of PMS, with effect from September 3.

The development has also caused a consequential increase in transport fares and the price of goods.

Reacting to the development in separate interviews with journalists on Wednesday, some transporters and prospective travellers said the situation had become “highly unbearable” for average Nigerians.

A tricyclist in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia, Enyichi Nnadede, said that he would not have come out for work because of the high cost of fuel but for the lack of food for his household.

“Fuel is very costly now. We buy N1,200 a litre and it is hard for us to make any gains at the day’s toiling to feed our families.

He said: “The situation is becoming very unbearable for us. The petrol dealers are making matters worse.

“They sold petrol at N870 per litre yesterday, but today (Wednesday), they are selling at N1,200; what happened overnight?”

Another transporter in Umuahia, Agu Chukwuma, said he bought fuel on Wednesday at N1,100 per litre.

Mr Chukwuma also said that the situation was adversely affecting his transport business, adding that he was making little or no profit.

“Some of us doing this business do not have any other thing to do.

“The government is pushing Nigerians too far. It is high time they stopped these harsh economic policies,” he said.

A commuter in Aba, Adiele Chinaza, pleaded with the government to discontinue its policies that make life unbearable for citizens.

“I commute from my base in Aba to Umuahia for work every working day.

“Most Abia civil servants work from their villages, but now that transport fares have gone up so much, it will be very difficult for us to meet up.

“The painful aspect is that whatever a civil servant earns will not be enough for the family even with N70,000 as minimum wage,” Mr Chinaza said.

An Umuahia resident, Onyinyechi Ekwonye, said that the hike in transport fares, arising from fuel price increases, would have an immediate and negative impact on the prices of goods and services in the country.

“We don’t know what to make out of this situation; government is hurting us; transporters and traders are hurting us.

“We are tired of this unending economic hardship.

“The Nigeria Labour Congress should stop the hard policies of the federal government; it is becoming too unbearable,” Mr Ekwonye said.

(NAN)