Commuters Groan As Fuel Scarcity Spreads
. NNPC Not Supplying Us With Products, Says Marketers
By Abimbola Abdullah
Hard times are around for commuters across the country as fuel scarcity spreads, leaving the transporters to high fares.
Slye News reports that scores of Nigerians were stranded this morning as the transporters shot up the fares by as much as N50%.
The scarcity of fuel, which gradually started from Abuja last week has now spread to more states of the federation such as Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States among others.
Already, a large number of filling stations have been shut down, while only few are selling products amid a long queue of vehicles and Jerry cans.
Recall that NNPC had earlier said it has resolved the cause of tightness in fuel supply, unfortunately the situation remains unabated.
Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd, Olufemi Soneye, had attributed the fuel shortage to “logistics issues” which he said “have been resolved”.
He also assured that, “the prices of petroleum products are not changing”.
He therefore urged Nigerians to avoid panic buying, saying there is a sufficiency of products in the country.
National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry while featuring as a guest on a Channels Television breakfast programme, said that the supply challenge has not been resolved, although he acknowledged the efforts by NNPC to solve the problem.
“NNPC has its outlets that they also serve. So, if they have some logistics issues, that will possibly be what is internal to NNPC. But as for us, PETROAN members, we can tell Nigerians for real that if we have petroleum products delivered to us, supply to us upon payment for those same products, we will supply to Nigerians.
“I would like to correct Nigerians that we retail outlet owners or marketers as they generally call all of us is the reason for this. We do not have any reason not to serve the public and we are willing to serve the public. All that is required is for us to have petroleum products delivered to us from NNPC and we will make sure that our retail outlets are open, some of them are even open for 24 hours. The challenge of logistics is only relevant to the NNPC retail outlets.”
Some of the commuters that spoke to Slye News begged President Tinubu to quickly intervene in the fuel matter to ensure that Nigerians don’t suffer amidst high cost of fuel.
Benjamin Adio, said: “I don’t know what Nigerians did to deserve these pur punishment. We are not happy, No water, no light, no road, no fuel even when we are paying higher prices. Government must do something fast about this. It is becoming so unbearable,”
