Residents, farmers decry military closure of petrol stations in Geidam

Farmers and residents of Geidam town in Yobe state have decried closure of filling stations by military, causing them serious hardship.

Speaking with our reporter on telephone today, the House of Assembly member, representing Geidam, Mohammed Ali, said he had received over 17 complaints from residents and farmers stating the hardship they were going through.

“Majority of our people relied on irrigation farming for livelihood; now the fuel supply to power their water pumps has been shut down and their crops have started wilting.

“Some people complaint that water vendors have now raised the cost of water cart from N200 to 800 because, most of the boreholes cannot operate due to lack of fuel, causing artificial scarcity in the town”, he said.

He noted that the town’s markets, which thousands of residents depend on for their livelihoods, have been closed for 16 weeks, causing untold hardships to the people.

“Now, the fuel that is sold to our people at regulated quantity is stopped”, he said adding that, “the hit of the military action is completely on us, the politicians, and we will take up the matter to the appropriate quota for redress”.

A staff of one of the filling stations, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent that they acted on the order of military.

“They didn’t gave us any reason, they just ordered that we should not open tomorrow (Tuesday) for a reason best known to them”, he said.

A resident, Muhammad Ali, said the situation has within few hours rendered many commercial motorists and tricycle operators jobless.

“The few ones operating are charging higher; they are now charging N200 for a distance of N50. We are in a very difficult situation,” he said.

An Onion farmer, Zanna Ibrahim, complained that he cannot water his plants because of the military action.

“We are in serious trouble, because most of the onion we harvested got rotten due to market closure and the one in the farm is now wilting for lack of fuel to power the water pumps”, he said.

When contacted, the spokesman of Sector II Operation Lafiya Dole, Lt. Njoka Irabor, said he was not aware of the development and promised to respond as soon as he get credible information on the matter.

However, a top security source told our correspondent that the military have acted on privilege information to cut the fuel supply to avoid sabotage of their operation in the area.