Unknown hoodlums have restored to stealing fuel from cars as the fuel scarcity continues to take its scourge on Nigerians across the country.
Activities of criminal elements who have resorted to stealing premium motor spirit, (PMS) from cars at night, owing to the scarcity of the product and hike in price, have thrown Benin residents in Edo State into a state of worry.
In spite assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation (NNPC) that the product would be easily available most petrol stations with the products still sell between N190 and N220 per litre.
According to Leadership, investigation, however, shows that residents of Ekenwa, Ugbiyoko, Asoro and Siluko roads where most car owners usually park their vehicles outside are the worst hit.
Perpetrators of this new wave of heinous crime are said to force open the fuel cover of vehicles and subsequently siphoned the product from the fuel tanks.
Residents are also pointing finger at black marketers of being the brain behind the rampant stealing of fuel from parked cars.
One of the victims, Samson Ugiagbe, a 29-year- old taxi driver in Benin, who threatened to invite Juju priest (Ayelala) to place curses on the thieves who siphoned the 20 litre fuel he bought at black market rate, said the high cost of the product was responsible the crime.
Meanwhile, the state chairman of petroleum monitoring committee, Lord Amen Osunde, at the weekend banned the sale of PMS in jerricans by petrol station operators to customers.