By Septimus Senesie in Kono
For a week now the
movement of people in the diamond-rich district of Kono has been
restricted with especially students stranded on their way back to
school due to high cost of the pump price of fuel emanating from an
apparent shortage of the commodity.
Fuel stations like
Total, NP and Safecon have disregarded the official pump price of Le
4,500 per litre and now sell Le 6,000 while black marketeers sell at
almost twice the price – Le 8,000.
Speaking to
Politico, a bike rider Sahr Dauda said that Total filling station at
Gun Point was selling to them at Le 6,000 a litter. He alleged that
even at that they had to bribe some workers at the filling stations
before they would sell to them. “I doubt whether Kono is a part of
Sierra Leone” he asked rhetorically, before saying that even under
normal circumstances they buy fuel at Le 5,000 per litre.
Fanta Amara is a
widow with five children who told Politico that her mainstay was the
selling of fuel on the black market. She defended her black market
price of Le 8,000 by saying that they also buy it at Le 6,000 at the
fuel stations. She accused the police of running a syndicate with the
fuel dealers adding that “the police are seeing the fuel dealers
hiking the prices without batting an eyelid let alone making
arrests”. She called on the government to intervene before they
take to the street of Kono with demonstrations.
The crime officer
at the Tankoro police station, Abdulahi Kemokai denied the allegation
of the police running a syndicate with the fuel dealers. “We do not
have any information of dealers hiking the price of fuel at the
expense of the consumers,“ he said. He warned that the police would
arrest anyone caught doing that.
Politico met with
the fuel dealers to comment on the allegations, but they declined.
© Politico
11 October 2012
