To Nigerians' dismay, fuel scarcity persist despite Kachikwu’s promise

Long fuel queues have refused to disappear from major cities across the country despite assurance by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu to end the 10-day long fuel scarcity.

This is even as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) plans to embark on a strike tomorrow.   

Kachikwu assured the National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday that fuel shortage would end in 48 hours.

The NEC, which comprises governors and some ministers, is chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

PENGASSAN said its members would go on strike after the failure of a truce between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Neconde Energy Limited with its members.

A statement by the spokesperson of PENGASSAN, Fortune Obi, confirmed that the meeting ended in a stalemate.

PENGASSAN accused Neconde of anti-workers activities against its members.

However, investigations by Daily Trust on Sunday across the country show that the fuel scarcity is far from over.

In Abuja, long queues were seen by our reporters along Kubwa Expressway, Central Area and other parts of the Federal Capital Territory. Many filling stations in other parts of the city were not dispensing the product when Daily Trust on Sunday checked.

Our correspondent in Markudi, Benue State reports that motorists were worried over the continued scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which had persisted in the state for over a week.

A respondent, Mr. Monday Adah, said that it was disheartening that despite the hike in price of PMS, the trend of obtaining the product by long queues at festive periods had not changed.

Adah noted that he queued for over four hours to fill his car tank at a filling station along Ankpa Road with black marketers giving between N500 and N1000 to petrol attendants in order to boycott queues and buy in big jerry cans.

Mrs Edward Joyce complained that the development would likely force her to cancel her planned trip to her village for the Christmas celebration by next week.

Several petrol stations including the NNPC Mega Station located along Makurdi-Otukpo Federal Highway, Rainoil, Bolek, and AP, had long queues of vehicles waiting to take their turns at the pumps.

In Jos, Plateau State, our correspondent, who went to some filling stations, gathered that the situation is just as bad.

A motorist, John Davou, who spoke to our correspondent at the NNPC Mega filling station by Secretariat Junction, said he had been on queue for over two hours and was yet to get fuel.

He said most stations were selling fuel at between N145-N150 per litre, but that the problem was the time spent on queue.

In Kano, our correspondent observed that although some filling stations got supply of the product on Friday, most of the stations refused to operate yesterday.

The few filling stations that operated include A.A. Rano at Hadejia Road/Eastern Bypass roundabout, NNPC Mega Station, Audu Manager along Maiduguri Road and Conoil on Murtala Muhammed Way.

A motorist, Muhammad Isah, who spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday at Conoil filling station said he had spent three hours in the queue and could not fill his tank.

Many of the filling stations in Kaduna yesterday kept their premises shut with only a few selling fuel to intending buyers.

Our correspondent who went round the town could not ascertain if the closure was due to lack of petroleum products or a mere device to hoard the products as workers were not around and with only security men who could not explain why the stations were not open.

The situation is worse in the outskirts where only few stations were selling.

A motorist, Ibrahim Ladan who was buying at one of the stations along Zaria Road, said he had to join the queue as he was travelling and was not sure if he would get fuel along the way before Zaria.

He said though they were selling at N145, he was not sure if the meters were adjusted accurately.

However, in Rivers State the fuel situation seems not to be too bad as there are supplies in many filling stations in Port Harcourt.

Checks carried out by our correspondent showed that many filling stations had fuel but sold at N160 per litre.

A motorist, Cyprian Oko said, “There is availability of fuel in all the filling stations but we are worried about the hike in price of the product.”

There was no visible fuel scarcity in Lagos metropolis as at Saturday evening as majority of filling stations visited were dispensing fuel without queues.

Normalcy has since returned to Lagos a week ago after two days of scarcity.

Lagos zonal chairman of NUPENG, Alhaji Nujeemdeen Korodo had told Daily Trust on Sunday that his members had commenced 24-hours fuel loading to ease supplies in Lagos area and other part of the country.