TO reduce the suffering of motorists in Bauchi State, Governor Isa Yuguda on Wednesday appealed to members of the Independent Petrol Marketers' Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) to open their filling stations to allow vehicle owners have access to petroleum products.

The governor, who spoke at the Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), upbraided the Federal Government for failing to take workable action against marketers of petroleum products across the country who have imposed the regime of hardship on Nigerians by hoarding fuel in anticipation of price adjustment.

Yuguda, who made the appeal at a media interaction held at the Government House, Bauchi, warned that "any petrol dealer who has fuel and refuses to sell to members of the public as I have directed, shall be treated as an economic saboteur."

Petroleum products' marketers in the state had stopped selling the products since the Federal Government's announcement on the deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector.

Investigations in the state revealed that some days ago, a litre of petrol sold for N100.00 in some areas, while it was sold for N600.00 in other areas of the state.

At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega station located on the outskirts of the state capital, mobile policemen assigned to the station to maintain security and orderliness were seen collecting between N300 to N500 from motorists to allow them easy access and beat the over two-kilometre long queue.

The governor, decrying the development, observed that the action has already thrown the general public into untold hardship as fares have risen due to the unilateral action by the marketers to increase pump price.

Yuguda appealed to Bauchi people to remain calm, assuring that the government was doing everything within the law to reverse the situation, just as he reiterated his administration's commitment to the welfare of the people. It was gathered that in Bauchi, a taxi drop that used to be between N50 and N100 now attracts N400 to N600.

Efforts to talk to IPMAN chairman and secretary proved abortive despite several phone calls and visits to their office on Jos Road in Bauchi.

In a statement by its National Co-ordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA blamed what he called the unguarded utterances of top government officials on the proposed deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry for the upsurge in the nation-wide artificial scarcity and active hoarding of petroleum products by marketers that led to the unending queues by motorists desperately seeking to buy the premium motor spirit.

The rights group further criticised the alleged lack of will power on the part of the Federal Government to stop the proliferation of black market sellers of petroleum products in tacit collaboration with the law enforcement agents like the Nigeria Police.

HURIWA upbraided the presidential Media Adviser, Mr. Segun Adeniyi, "for publicly making a statement that has now confirmed that the Federal Government is in cohort, and has indeed connived with the major fuel marketers to hoard their petroleum products and create artificial scarcity so as to justify the planned upward review of pump prices of the products through a deregulation policy that has been widely condemned by Nigerians."

Specifically on Tuesday, the Special Adviser on Media to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was reported to have said that the current artificial scarcity of the petroleum products at the filling stations in Nigeria justified government's position on the need for the deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

HURIWA criticised the presidential spokesman for what it called the "insensitivity" and "irresponsiveness" of the current administration to the widespread rejection by the majority of Nigerians of the proposed deregulation policy in the petroleum industry.

The rights group lamented that "the current administration's plan to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry is one way to impoverish and incapacitate a greater majority of Nigerians and weaken the resolve of the citizens to pressure the government to reform the decadent electoral system since the greater majority of Nigerians will preoccupy themselves with the sources of their next meals."

It, therefore, urged the Federal Government to "use the instrumentality of the law enforcement to fish out all errant fuel marketers and filling station owners who have deliberately hoarded the products in anticipation of the commencement of the deregulation policy, which will translate into automatic hike in the pump prices of fuel and more profits to the few fuel dealers to the greater disadvantage of the majority of Nigerians who will suffer the inevitable untold hardship from the sudden and drastic change of the cost of living."

HURIWA also challenged the Federal Government to demonstrate that it was not in connivance with fuel marketers by implementing far-reaching decisions through the law enforcement agencies to make it impossible for owners of filling stations to keep hoarding fuel and creating artificial scarcity of petroleum products in Nigeria.

The rights group strongly condemned any imposition of deregulation policy that will create further excruciating poverty in a country where, it said, 90 million of the 140 million people are extremely poor even as it "called on Nigerians to prepare for very active but non-violent civil disobedience and other mass actions to protest the proposed deregulation."

HURIWA also called on the organised civil society groups and the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) not to give up the crusade against the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.