LECTURERS DECRY RISING CASE OF PMS IN ANAMBRA

REPORTER: IFEANYI CHINWUKO

The high cost of premium motor spirit commonly known as petrol has become a serious source of worry to civil servants in Anambra State.

A cross section of lecturers and non teaching university staff living in Awka, the state capital made their reservations known while speaking with Radio Nigeria.

Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, which in recent past sold between #160 and #259 now sells around #330 and #350 per liter in many filling stations across the state, mounting serious pressure on the finances of many citizens especially the civil servants whose salaries are fixed.

Speaking on the development, a member of staff of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Mr. Steve Anakwuba, described the current cost of petrol in the country as devastating and uncalled for.

Mr. Anakwuba blamed the current petrol situation on poor leadership in the country and called on Nigerians to vote wisely during the forthcoming general election.

For his part , a lecturer in the same university (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka), Mr. Chukwuemeka Umoebi, bemoaned the current exorbitant cost of petrol, especially for Nigeria that is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world.

Mr. Umeobi, while describing the situation as insensitivity on the part of the government of the day, appealed to the authorities concerned to look into the current situation as price of petrol had affected every other sector of the Nigerian economy.

Contributing, another lecturer, in the same institution, Mr. Gabriel Alonta, noted that every section of Nigerian society had been badly affected by the high cost of petrol, adding further that government needed to pay serious attention to the development to reduce the sufferings of millions of Nigerians who depended on petrol for one reason or the other.

Adding his voice, another university teacher, Mr Emeka Uba-Anene, also of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, stated that the current cost of petrol in the country was frustrating as many civil servants could not afford to transport themselves to their places of work, forcing many to trek to work.

Other respondents who spoke with Radio Nigeria wondered why it often took too long bureaucratic due processes to effect increase in salaries of civil servants but took couples of minutes to hike cost of petrol in Nigeria.

They called on the political leadership to fix the country’s refineries, saying only that could bring down the cost of petrol in the country.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU