By Mabinty M. Kamara
Diesel, which is one of the second most used fuels in Sierra Leone, second to petrol, has been reported to be in shortage over the last two days.
On Monday major highways were inundated with stranded passengers at various points in the east end of Freetown and in other areas in the west. Commuters who couldn’t bear the wait due to long queues were forced to trek the long distances to town.
Commercial drivers, traders and workers were all caught up in the struggle for transport vehicles on Monday and Tuesday, with some people not even knowing what exactly was happening around them. And in the midst of this confusing situation, the drivers always take undue advantage to exploit the people with self-imposed prices and short distances from the normal destinations.
Fatmata Kandeh, a trader at Malama Thomas Street, was part of the stranded passengers at Barracks Old Road. She could not go to town early because Poda- podas were hard to come by. She told Politico that she didn’t know what was happening as she had been standing on the street waiting for vehicle for over 30 minutes.
“It’s been close to an hour now since I left home but I can’t get vehicle. I don’t know if it’s traffic or what and the taxis and Kekeh’s are not helping it. Imagine a taxi driver asking me for three thousand Leones from Barracks here to Upgun, which is not even my stopping point,” she said.
Musa Kabbia, also not knowing the cause of the difficulty to get vehicle, assumed it was the normal style of drivers to make things difficult for passengers, especially on a Monday morning, and increase fares.
Alusine Kamara, a Poda-Poda driver in the east, told Politico that there had been a shortage of Diesel since last Saturday. He said since most of the Poda-podas consume diesel as fuel, it was bound to affect the traffic.
“I had to be in queue until 1:00 o’clock at night to get 20 liters,” he said.
Ishmael Bangura, an apprentice in a Poda-poda, also expressed dissatisfaction over the shortage of diesel, noting that it’s disturbing their work greatly. He said he had to give ten thousand Leones extra just so get the attendant sell them fuel.
“Most of my colleagues are out of work today because they don’t have fuel in their vehicles,” he lamented.
Most of the fuel stations Politico visited in the east and in some part of the West end of Freetown did not have fuel as at that time. We learned that it was the same situation in the other districts.
The Sierra Leone Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union (SLMDGTWU) were concerned over the shortage in the market, noting that affected the operations of its members.
Alpha Amadu Bah, President of SLMDGTWU confirmed to politico that majority of the commercial transport vehicles consume diesel, because of its affordability, and hence the huge impact the scarcity had on the sector.
“I have received lots of calls since this morning from all the districts complaining about this diesel scarcity. About 70% of the commercial vehicles do use diesel because it is less expensive compared to petrol. So people prefer to buy diesel vehicles for commercial purposes than petrol,” Bah explained on Monday, noting that they warned all their members to desist from exploiting passengers with exorbitant prices because of this scarcity.
“We also urged the government to ensure that fuel dealers do not increase the prices of the fuel as some people have started increasing prices from eight thousand Leones to fifteen thousand Leones, which is not good,” he added.
Mr. Bah said they tried reaching the Petroleum Regulatory Agency (PRA) to know the cause of the shortage but that they didn’t get any response. He added that a visit by the Union to the Ministry of Trade also proved futile as they couldn’t get an audience with the Minister.
He said they were told that the minister was in a meeting.
Bah believe that there is enough fuel in the country. He said he suspected that it’s being horded by the dealers to black market.
The PRA declined to respond to a request for comment by Politico.
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