AMBAZONIANS PAY THE PRICE OF LRC GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE
Ambazonians Exploited With Fuel Scarcity By Tradex Filling Station.
UNDAUNTED reported on the scarcity of fuel on Thursday, March 16.2023 in Ambazonia and Bamenda in particular, the situation is getting worse with the colonial Tradex filling Station taking advantage of the situation to exploit the automobile owners. Tradex filling is now almost the lone filling station in Bamenda, given that other privately owned filling stations scarcely have fuel highly demanded by customers. With the LRC-created monopoly favoring Tradex, the price per liter is almost doubled with desperate Ambazonians left with no choice but to pay.
Founded in 1999 by the LRC National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH) of Cameroon, TRADEX is a major player in the distribution and trading of petroleum products. This implies that, if Tradex is inflating the price of petroleum products in Bamenda, Ambazonia, it is LRC doing it. This unorthodox price increase by Tradex is only in Ambazonia and not in LRC where they have other filling stations.
Why is Tradex only manipulating the prices of fuel only in Ambazonia?
Why are the colonial LRC authorities in Bamenda keeping quiet knowing what Tradex is doing to the desperate people of Southern Cameroons? Scenes like this of people lining up at gas stations in Bamenda have been common for the past few days, and jerrycans in hand are becoming commonplace. Most fuel stations have run out of diesel in recent days and Tradex that has it now rationing it and increasing the prices. "There is no fuel all over the town, not even the illicit fuel (Fingeh). We heard, Tradex has fuel, so we drove from Ntarinkon to get even a little. We can line up for 4 hours, or 5 hours, just to get as little as we can to run the car for the day. I've been here since 6 am," said ndonwi, a taxi driver.
"There is already no fuel at other stations and where we find a little bit of petrol, we are told we can't fill our tanks," said Moffo Koumeni, a cab driver.
In the wake of scarce supplies of diesel and petrol, transporters have increased transportation fares. Prices of goods are shooting up. The fuel shortage situation is becoming unbearable for motorists and other transporters in Bamenda and surrounding towns. Denizens believe that the days ahead may be more precarious with a continuous hike in petroleum products, should the scarcity continue. "We managed to find petrol here at Tradex up station, but given the scarcity, they are giving us a liter at 1500 FCFA and even rationalizing because of the number of people who are here to consume", said Mr. Chifor Pius, an urban transporter.
Early this year, LRC increased the prices by 20%, with a liter to be sold at 720 FRS, yet Tradex has more than doubled the price to 1500 FRS.
