“Hell will be let loose this morning, if the person who took out of my petrol does not come out this minute to confess.”
I was sleeping in the afternoon when this loud shout woke me up.
I was not sure of what had happened, since it takes few seconds to regain consciousness when you wake up from sleep.
“Let that person come out now and confess or ‘Amadioha’ will kill him instantly,” the voice from my neighbour’s flat continues.
I rushed out, not because I was the one Amadioha will be coming for, but because I had never seen such rage before coming from this quiet neighbour.
Everyone in other flats followed suit and in few minutes the frontage of our compound was like a meeting point after a fire alarm.
The Story
What happened, I asked out of curiosity, and that was when the real story began.
“I buy 5 liters of petrol for night, yesterday, I use am for my gen only 3 hours, now I wan come on my gen, my fuel don disappear.”
As she spoke, I could see the burning anger in her eyes.
“Five liters of petrol de carry me for 6 hours”, she added.
Aisha was about to continue when mummy Ife, an elderly neighbour in the compound stepped forward to speak.
There was total silence, as everyone starred at her with their eyes wide open, as if we had seen a ghost.
The Surprise
We had thought that she was about to confess.
But to our greatest surprise, mummy Ife, with tears in her eyes, revealed that she had a similar experience.
I was left in shock, “does it mean that this very secured compound is no longer safe?”, I thought to myself.
After hours of raining abuses and curses on the thief, or thieves, as the case may be, we all decided to leave it to God.
That is where it always ends.
But ours did not end there.
Immediately, we all agreed that the compound gate must be locked at all times.
Those who did not have the keys were mandated to get theirs.
The Resolution
After this resolution, everyone moved quietly into their flats.
I tried all I could to get back to sleep, but to no avail. That petrol incident was still in my head.
I grew very curious.
What could have happened to Aisha’s petrol.
You see, Aisha is not the first to complain of such.
Many Nigerians on and offline say they have experienced this mystery.
Well, it is possible that someone may have sucked the fuel out of her tank.
However, it has been weeks already and Amadioha is yet to strike the thief.
Petrol Adulteration
Now, let’s consider other possibilities.
You see, at the time of that incident, we were so caught in the euphoria of the moment.
So much that nobody even considered that adulteration may have played a huge role in the disappearance of that petrol.
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Or perhaps, nobody even knew.
My curiosity knew no bonds when the thought of petrol adulteration dropped in my head.
I decided to carry out some findings and I made some interesting discoveries I would like to share with you.
According to intechopen.com: “Adulteration of automobile fuels i.e., gasoline and diesel, leads to increased tailpipe emission and the consequent ill effects on public health”.
Made-in-Naija Petrol
“The primary cause of adulteration is the greed fueled by differential tax system (World Bank reports July 2002, September 2001, December 2001, CSE India report March 2002)”.
These days, the petrol we buy has different colours. They also smell differently.
We won’t be surprised if it is made-in-Naija, produced in the creeks of the south-south.
The petrol may not properly be refined, leading to evaporation.
After all, it has been long we heard that petrol creeks were destroyed, or do they no longer exist?
