Abuja was hit by a renewed fuel scarcity yesterday as 80% of petrol stations in the city claimed they did not have petroleum products to sell.
This is only two days after Mr. Maikanti Baru the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC announced ‘the country has seen the last of fuel scarcity, machinery have been put in place to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products in 2018 and beyond.’
Long queues appeared at NNPC Filling Stations and a majority of stations have shut whilst the few remaining are seeing long lines of motorists.
Mr. Ndu Ughamad the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, stated they had a large quantity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, sufficient to serve the nation for more than 30 days. Ughamadu has advised citizens to desist from buying petroleum products in haste and for motorists to report any marketer selling above N145 per litre or hoarding.
“Law enforcement agencies would mete out appropriate sanctions to operators of fuel stations who engage in hoarding or sell products above the recommended price.”
However, the situation at hand does not reflect his remarks with Forte oil, Conoil and OandO stations at Wuse shut down. Conoil’s at Garki area 1 shut, sea petrol stations at area 3, Garki also not selling. Along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, only the NNPC stations at Mpape were selling the commodity.
The Conoil petrol stations opposite the NNPC Headquarters has a queue four streets long while at the NNPC mega stations in Wuse there is also a very long queue of motorists.