Crimes

Tricycle riders protest fuel price hike, naira scarcity in Enugu

Scores of tricycle riders, on Wednesday, protested the fuel price hike in Enugu State, blocking some roads in Abakaliki, the state capital.

The tricycle riders, who called for an end to fuel price hike and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cash withdrawal limit policy, blocked roads in the state capital with their tricycles, leading to heavy gridlock.

The protesters lamented that they have been buying fuel at exorbitant price N450-N650 per litre.

They also complained of alleged harsh CBN’s cash withdrawal limit policy of N500,000 across the counter in the face of scarcity of both the new and old naira notes.

One of the tricycle riders, who declined to be named, said: “We are very angry. How can we buy fuel at N500 at this moment? We can’t go anywhere because of high cost of petrol. Look at it now, because of hike in petrol price, the price of other goods and services have increased. We can’t continue like this. It is very unbearable.

“We are going through this horrible experience, CBN came with their monetary policy of changing what now came to be known as old naira notes. We rushed to banks to deposit our old naira notes. Today, we don’t see old naira notes and there is no new naira notes. If we go to bank to withdraw money, they will give you N10, N20, N50 and N100 notes. There is no new naira.

“We are suffering; we are dying; We are hungry. We can’t continue like this,” he lamented.

However, a few minutes into the protest, the operatives of the Enugu State Police Command stormed the scene of the protest and urged the protesters to disperse, promising to take their demands to the state government.

The visibly angry youths, after some minutes of persuasion, yielded to the plea of the police and promised to continue the next day if their demands were not addressed.

In a related development, some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Wednesday, stormed the residence of a billionaire businessman, Arthur Eze, demanding the fulfilment of his financial promise.

The PDP members, who were youths, said Eze promised to give them N20 million during Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign visit to the state weeks ago, saying the businessman has yet to fulfil his promise.

Many of them were seen chanting songs against the PDP candidates as the protesting youths set ablaze the party’s caps with ‘ATIKU’ inscribed on them.

Ezugwu Charles

The Star