Some households within Port Harcourt and its environs have resorted to the use of firewood for cooking, due to high cost of kerosene.
The Tide has observed that some households now make use of the firewood in major cooking either at the frontage or back of their homes.
It was gathered that the major reason for such decision is because it is now difficult to get kerosene, even at the filling stations, coupled with the high cost of cooking gas.
In a chat with The Tide, Mrs Edna Dike, a petty-trader and Pastor’s wife in Rumuosi Community, said the price of kerosene, which is their main stay, has hit the rooftop.
“It is difficult to get kerosene at the filling stations, and to worsen the matter, the ‘kpofire’ kerosene that was commonly available at the cost of N150 a bottle, now goes for between N600 and N800.
“The issue now is that how many bottles are you going to use in one week to boil water, cook beans and do other things in the family, especially with the scarcity of funds?.
“We are not using cooking gas in our house, we only use kerosene, but I learnt that the price of the kpofire is now higher than the price of one Kilogramme of gas, and so cooking with firewood becomes my best option”, she said.
For Mrs Deborah Innocent, a full time housewife residents at Rukpokwu, whose husband is a welder, the situation has made life unbearable, as cooking now has become very difficult.
According to her, cooking with firewood is the cheapest for her to cook hard foodstuffs such as beans, since they can no longer buy gas and kerosene as before.
Meanwhile, Mr Okezie Chima, while analysing the situation in an interaction, said it is cheaper to cook with ordinary characoal, than using kerosene and gas.
Chima, who resides in Igwuruta area of Port Harcourt, noted that charcoal is readily available at the market, noting that many fast food and Mama-put, make use of it.

By: Corlins Walter