2nd March, 2015
Kazeem Ugbodaga & Jamiu Yisa
Fuel scarcity has worsened in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, with long queues observed in filling stations across the state.
As at Monday morning, many filling stations were not dispensing Petrol Motor Spirit, PMS, to motorists as they were shut.
There were long queues in the few stations selling petrol.
P.M.NEWS reliably gathered that most of the filling stations have resorted to hoarding the product, thereby creating artificial scarcity.
Some of the filling stations, like Adonai in Ogba is selling PMS at N100 per litres while the attendants at stations that sell at N87 collect at least N100 or N200 from motorists before they could dispense the product.
In Abule Egba, filling stations like NNPC (Ekoro Road), Oando, Smart Petroleum, Oando on Abattoir Road, NNPC on Abattoir, Petroleum Manager and Total on Abattoir Road were shut.
Also, Mobil Filling Station on Agindingbi, Funmec on Acme Road were not dispensing the product to consumers, while stations such as Total in Abule Egba, SO filling station, ASCON Oil on Akilo Road and few others were selling, but there were queues at the filling stations.
The situation cuts across every part of the Lagos metropolis as several filling stations were shut, with some hoarding the product.
The situation is likely to get worse by the day.
Lagosians have lamented the scarcity. Some motorists who spoke with our correspondents at some major bus stops in the state this morning, said that they went through hell trying to get fuel over the weekend.
Few corporate workers who equally spoke with P.M.NEWS said they had to abandon their vehicles at home throughout the weekend, hoping to conserve the little fuel they had for their journey to their various offices during the week.
They called on the Federal Government to intervene urgently and bring the situation under control before it escalates.
A motorist, Alani Tewogbola, regretted that the scarcity has led to a hike in pump price of fuel in the state, adding that some of the filing stations where the product is available sell between N110 and N115 against government’s pump price of N87.
“The operators have cashed in on the scarcity to alter the meter reading. The quantity of product they dispense per litre is less than what it ought to be. Apart from the alteration, the quality of the product is questionable too. The situation has led to hike in fares for inter-city and intra-city transport services,” he said.
It was gathered that some oil marketers were no longer interested in importing the product due to rising exchange rate of the dollar to the naira, while the delayed subsidy payments and rising interests on loans from banks are reasons for the scarcity.
Tokunbo Korodo, Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Lagos Zone, stated that there was inadequate fuel in the depots to serve filling stations across the metropolis.
According to him, if there were enough to go round, tanker drivers would move products to the areas of need, saying that Nigerians should not be surprised that this was happening now, describing it as unfortunate.
However, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Ohi Alegbe said the Federal Government had brought fresh 680 million litres of petrol to improve the product supply base, saying that the scarcity would soon disappear.