Western Bahr el Ghazal State government has directed petrol stations to reduce price of a litter of fuel by three pounds.

Officials say a litter currently costs 16 pounds. This is almost two times higher than the price in Juba.

The Wau Town council wants fuel station managers to sell a liter at 13 pounds. Livio Gelego Bahara is the mayor. He told Eye Radio that the council has taken steps to avoid fuel shortage.

“We have actually discovered that some management of certain petrol stations do hoard and sell to their friends here and there in secrecy,” Mr Bahara said.

“We have put now a law; I have made a local order of the municipality burning everybody to sell fuel in drums; not just drums but also jerry-cans.”

Drivers and motorists who spoke to Eye Radio say the price at the pump is even higher than the 16 pounds per litter.

Some say they buy fuel at up to 20 pounds per litter.

“I’m not a boba boda Rider but I’m a farmer,” said Elario Achor. “The price of diesel should be reduced we cannot even reach to the farm if the diesel is sold at a high price.”

For his part, Marko Akol said: If it’s reduced to 8 pounds as in previous then the Boda Boda riders will automatically reduce their charges as well.”

Managers of fuel stations have declined to comment on the matter.

But they previously told Eye Radio that they were raising prices due to shortage of the hard currency that they needed to import fuel.

They also said there were many checkpoints, where they paid taxes, on along the road to wau.

However, the mayor says those illegal checkpoints will be removed and the national oil firm, Nilepet, will be allocating fuel to the states.