Customers of the NNPC Mega Station located in the Central Business District, Abuja, had a stressful evening on Monday getting served because the station was dispensing petrol from only two pumps.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that she spent almost one hour from 6.08 p.m. at the station before buying the commodity.
However, the situation was different at others stations within the city centre in the nation’s capital.
At the Forte Petrol Station adjacent to the Mega Station, motorists drove in and out freely within a few minutes.
On the reason for the development, two attendants at the Mega Station told NAN that the other pumps numbering about 18 had run dry.
They said that the station did not sell petrol to its numerous customers in the afternoon as the white product was not available then.
“We are selling from only two pumps because there is no petrol in the other pumps; we did not even sell in the afternoon; it is only now that they are discharging petrol for us.
“But now that they are discharging petrol, we will sell all through the night’’ one of the attendants said.
Efforts to find out the reason for the situation through a phone call to one of the three telephone numbers displayed at the station were unsuccessful as the number was said to be switched off.
The station manager was also not available to speak with NAN.
Most of the customers expressed their dissatisfaction at having to spend so much time at the station after a hard day’s job, especially as other stations had no fuel scarcity.
Several phone calls to the spokesman for the Department of Petroleum Resources, the regulator, went unanswered.
The situation might be panic buying on the part of consumers and this may not be unconnected to the recommendation by the Senate last week that N5 be added to every litre of petrol imported.
The addition, which Senate President Bukola Saraki had said would not cause an increase in the pump price, was to be ploughed back to the system for road maintanenace. (NAN)