Fuel shortage continues to steal the headlines for most Sierra Leone’s newspapers this week.
Wednesday’s editions feature quite a number of reports on the subject that began occupying the public’s attention since over the weekend.
After expression of fears on Monday, on Tuesday it became apparent that there is fuel shortage, even though the Petroleum Regulatory Agency insists that there is no shortage.
Queues have grown longer, with more fuel stations shutting down due to lack of the commodity.
So the question for the Weekly Analyst newspaper, for instance, is: ‘Fuel scarcity or increase in pump price? The story is the front page lead of the paper.
The same paper also carries a story on the awarding of grant to a Sierra Leone government technology project by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
‘Fuel shortage hits Sierra Leone, again’, screams Politico newspaper as its front page lead.
The paper also carries stories on strike action by staff of the Standards Bureau on Tuesday, the commencement of a new airline to Freetown and a proposed housing scheme by the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation.
At the center of this issue of fuel shortage are the oil marketing companies, which are believed by some to be creating the artificial shortage as part of efforts to maximize their profits.
And the National Petroleum, known as NP, is the largest of them all.
The Calabash newspaper decided to go on its defense, with a screaming headline: ‘Stop blaming NP-SL… NP-SL is here to serve the Nation.
KC/as/APA