Petrocity Filling Station in Kitgum Municipality has been ordered to close by the area Resident District Commissioner William Komakech for hiking petrol prices.
The development followed complaints by motorists that the station was selling a litre of petrol at 12,000 Shillings by end of business on Monday, while the cost remained between 4900 and 6000 for all other stations in the district, and the region.
Komakech argues that six out of the nine filling stations in Kitgum Municipality including Shell Alcoben, Total One, Total Two, Rock, Oil Energy and Gapco had run out of fuel in their reserves leaving Petrocity, Pita, and Don operating.
According to the RDC, they decided to close operations of the filling station because they were taking advantage of the current shortage of fuel in the district to hike fuel pump prices and they will only be opened to business after rescinding their decision formally.
One of the pump attendants at the affected station says they are under a directive from their superiors to keep their reserves with some fuel to avoid closure of business and avoid losing regular customers.
Okello argues the current crisis is a nationwide issue citing Pader where the price of petrol has been hiked to 14,000 per litre and in the West Nile sub-region where a litre of petrol ranges between 10,000 and 12,000 Shillings. Okello however says negotiations are underway to consider a reduction.
Komakech also warned proprietors of other filling stations to desist from taking advantage of the current situation to exploit and inflict financial pain on motorists saying members of the public should abandon the overpriced dealers; stations as they wait for the situation to normalize.