Business activities may slow down across
the country as a nationwide fuel scarcity, which began last week, did
not show any sign of respite on Sunday.
The fuel scarcity in Abuja and
neighbouring states of Nasarawa and Kaduna intensified on Sunday, a
development that led to the flooding of major roads by black marketeers,
who sold the product at exorbitant rates to desperate buyers.
Many petrol stations were shut, leaving
just a few major outlets to serve the hundreds of motorists who queued
for several hours in a bid to get petrol.
Motorists paid between N1,800 and N2,000
for 10 litres of petrol sold by the black marketers on major roads of
Abuja, Nasarawa and Kaduna states on Sunday.
Some petrol filling stations in Lagos,
Ogun, Oyo, and other states in the South also exploited the current
scarcity to sell the product between N100 and N200 per litre.
A majority of filling stations were seen
shut on Sunday but those that were opened for business had long queues
and were selling at prices of their choice.
Some of the filling stations belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were closed for business.
This development also affected vehicular
movements in the areas, and some commercial bus owners capitalised on
the situation to hike fares.
As of Sunday afternoon, our
correspondent gathered that activities at the petroleum products’ depots
located at Apapa, Lagos were skeletal.
The fuel scarcity in Abuja and its
neighbouring states had lingered for over one week despite claims by the
NNPC and its subsidiary, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, that
there was enough product to keep the country wet for about 30 days.
The Executive Director, Commercial,
PPMC, Mr. Justin Ezeala, had told journalists on Friday that the country
had 656.38 milion litres of petrol, which would last for at least 16.41
days.
Both agencies also put the expected fuel
import from the PPMC and other importers for the end of
November 2015
at 756.99 million litres, adding that when summed with what the country
currently had in stock, a total of over 1.4 billion litres of petrol was
guaranteed.
A member of the Nigeria Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers at Apapa, Lagos, confirmed to one of
our correspondents that the demand for petrol had far exceeded the
supply from the NNPC.
He also confirmed that rationing of
supply was the order of the day as it was only the NNPC that had the
product, which they said was grossly insufficient.
An official of the union told our
correspondent that the situation was likely to get worse from Monday
(today), if the required actions were not taken fast.
Marketers had on Friday said the current
petrol supply challenge facing the nation was likely to last till
December this year owing to issues bordering on subsidy claims payment,
foreign exchange shortage, logistics, among others.
The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum
and Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, had also
confirmed to one of our correspondents that the supply situation was
unlikely to see much improvement as marketers’ confidence in the
government had seriously eroded.
The Minister of Petroleum, Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, had, last week, said President Muhammadu Buhari, was seeking
the approval of the National Assembly to pay the N413bn approved last
week as subsidy claims to oil marketers across the country.
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