Queues vanish after new fuel prices

Some few hours after the announcement of new fuel price increases by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah, the long queues at filling stations in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis have vanished.

Also most stations, which had displayed "No Petrol" Signboards around 5:00pm were at about 8:00am this morning busily selling petrol.

When the GNA, visited some filling stations, in the metropolis, on Saturday morning, attendants were doing brisk business.

In separate interviews, drivers, passengers and fuel station attendants, said that they suspected hoarding of petroleum products by some station managers in anticipation of price increases thereby creating artificial shortage.

In a related development, many commercial and taxi drivers did not operate on Saturday leaving passengers stranded at several bus terminals.

Some of the drivers GNA spoke to, said they did not know how much to charge, while others explained that they wanted to avoid confrontation with passengers for charging unapproved fees.

Kwesi Kwarteng a taxi driver said he informs passengers of the new transport fares before they board the vehicle, to avoid any misunderstanding.

However, there were misunderstandings at the Anaji, Kwesiminstim, Apowa, beach road, Kojo Krom, and Sekondi trotro and taxi ranks over the new fares.

While some passengers said they expected the new prices to be charged from next week Monday, others claimed they were not aware of any increment in the price of petroleum products.