As the scarcity of petrol worsens in Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and oil marketers have blamed the development on a disruption of supply at key depots in the two cities.
Sunday PUNCH, however, gathered that some oil marketers and transporters in the two cities reduced the number of trucks they sent out to load the product to watch how the planned nationwide hunger protest would turn out.
It was learnt that some PMS dealers had asked some of their truck drivers to park, particularly those involved in the transportation of products from the coastal depots in the South to the hinterlands in the North.
The development, according to marketers, contributed to the fuel queues being experienced in many parts of the country, including Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger, Lagos, and Ogun, among others.
The NNPCL said the fuel queues were caused by hitches in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.
It was, however, quick to state that the national oil firm was working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in operations.
Our correspondents gathered that the queues for petrol surfaced at the Nipco Filling Station on the Zuba-Kubwa Expressway, while motorists besieged the Conoil Filling Station opposite the headquarters of NNPC inside Abuja on Saturday.
Many other outlets, including Shafa, Salbas, and Gegu Oil, among others, located on the busy Kubwa-Zuba Expressway, were also closed yesterday, and some of the attendants said this was due to a lack of products to dispense.
In Lagos, Sunday PUNCH gathered that the fuel queues occurred at some major filling stations located along the Lagos/Abeokuta Expressway, especially those in the Abule-Egba, Agege, LASU/Igando, Egbeda, and Iyana-Ipaja axis of the state.
As a result of the scarcity, petrol was sold for between N650 and N850 in the affected parts of Lagos on Saturday.
Our correspondent, who visited the Ibafo and Magboro areas along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Road, Ogun State, also observed that several filling stations were either shut or overwhelmed with long lines of vehicles and motorcycles.
This was just as several other Filling Stations, including Enyo, Heyden, Haoti, and Osadol in Ibafo, as well as Quest filling station in Magboro, were not dispensing petrol despite being open.
Commenting on the development, the Deputy National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Zarma Mustapha, said the queues were also due to the planned protest.
“The planned protest is one of the reasons for the queues we are seeing now. Most transporters and marketers are a bit sceptical about dispatching their trucks for loading at the various coastal depots for delivery to the hinterlands.
“So, people are waiting to see how things are going to be, and there are not many trucks that have gone to lift the product. Everybody is watching; nobody knows how the protest is going to turn out,” he stated.
The IPMAN official urged those gearing up to protest to be responsible during the exercise to avoid losses to private businesses, government, and other individuals.
“My advice is that even though it is the legitimate right of anyone to protest, it should be done with a sense of responsibility because we have a lot of unemployed idle youths. It shouldn’t be done in such a way that hoodlums will hijack the protest and cause disharmony within the country.
“No matter what you are protesting against, there must be peace. Once law, order, and peace are strangulated, we will all face the consequences. So, let us all use a sense of responsibility and caution in exercising our rights to protest.
“It is not wrong to come out and protest to show the grievances one has against the government, but it should be done with a sense of responsibility and caution,” Mustapha stated.
Also speaking on the queues, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday, blamed the development on discharge operations at some fuel vessels.
He pointed out that the situation was being addressed by the company and stakeholders.
“The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the tightness in fuel supply and distribution witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT is due to a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.
“The company further states that it is working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in operations,” he stated.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, IPMAN National Vice President, Hammed Fashola, said some members of the association could not buy the product at private depots on Friday due to the high price the product was being sold.
Fashola said, “The truth is that there is little disruption in supply. And it is the NNPCL that can really tell us what is happening because they are the sole importer for now. And now that they have told us the reason, we have to agree with them. But as oil marketers, we discovered that fuel supply is not as it used to be at the depots.”
When asked to comment on the hike in the price of the commodity, he said, “The law of demand and supply has actually come into play. When demand surpasses supply, automatically, the price will go up. But that is not official. Moreover, we, marketers, buy from private depots. If you go to them now, you will discover that they have raised their price. As a result, some of our marketers didn’t buy the product because they can’t sell it at a high price in their filling stations.”
Additional Reports: Daniel Ayantoye, Muhammed Lawal and Ayoola Olasupo.
