Traffic wardens in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, went on partial vacation yesterday as the number of vehicles on the roads reduced drastically due to fuel scarcity that got worse over the weekend.

Commuters, motorists, and residents have been groaning over scarcity of fuel across the nation due to tanker drivers strike over non-payment for services rendered.

School children, civil servants, health workers and other private citizens could not make it to their businesses till the afternoon and even at that commuters were stranded at major bus stops.

To the motorists, it was a replay of the bitter days of old during the military reign of the late General Sani Abacha.

They formed long queues at every few filling stations that had fuel which did not go round to all intending buyers.

Filling stations had another opportunity to arbitrarily jerk up their pump prices from the official N87 per litre, to as much as N300 in some cases.

Apparently, loading of petrol expected to commence on Monday had not been effected in Ilorin, but sources told National Mirror late yesterday afternoon that there is hope that more lifting and discharging of petrol would resume later in the evening and possibly extend into the night.