Long queues started building up at fuel stations in Abuja and Lagos on Friday and have persisted.
Following the recent scarcity, Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol is currently selling at the black market as high as N1,300 to N1,500 per litre in parts of Lagos and Ogun states.
This is according to a report by Punch.
Recall that long queues started building up at fuel stations in Abuja and Lagos on Friday and have persisted.
On Saturday, while reacting to the long queues and scarcity in some parts of the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said the tightness in fuel supply and distribution was caused by a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.
“The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the tightness in fuel supply and distribution witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT is as a result of a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels,” the NNPC Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, said.
The company added that it was “working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in the operations.”
However, despite the assurance by the NNPC, the situation worsened as checks by our correspondents nationwide on Sunday showed that there were long queues at several filling stations across major cities.
Punch correspondents who visited parts of Lagos and Ogun states on Sunday reported that many fuel stations did not open for business while the handful that opened had long queues of vehicles and people buying in jerrycans. Black marketers had a field day selling to impatient motorists at between N1,200 and N1,500 per litre, depending on the location.
A bus driver, Elijah Sunday, who spoke to one of our correspondents at the Ketu motor garage in Lagos, lamented the struggle to get PMS.
“We have been finding it hard to get fuel for the past couple of days and it’s expensive, so, we had to increase the rates,” he said.
A minibus driver plying the Eko Hotel-CMS route in Lagos insisted on N300 instead of N200, citing the fuel scarcity.
Fuel queues were observed at PM Petroleum at Cele Bus Stop along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. At the North West filling station close to CharlyBoy Bus Stop at Gbagada, Lagos and the NNPC station at Ogudu, there was a long line of vehicles.
At Petrocam, a filling station in Ajao Estate, Lagos fuel sold for N780 per litre.
A motorist, Philip Gyang, said he had been in the long queue at the NNPC filling station along Dogon Karfi Road for over four hours but couldn’t get the product to buy.
“At the black market I paid N1,300 per litre before joining the queue at the NNPC outlet, where I eventually couldn’t get to buy,” Gyang lamented.
A Jos resident, Margaret John, said the scarcity had further increased the cost of living in the state.
“Can you imagine that I paid N500 from Polo Roundabout to Anguldi, when I was going to the church today (Sunday). When I was returning home, the driver insisted that I paid N700, it’s not funny. People are already complaining about the harsh economic conditions, now the fuel scarcity and high cost are worsening the situation.”
A car owner in Minna, the Niger State capital, said he had abandoned his car at home over fuel scarcity and skyrocketing prices.
“Yes, I have a car but I am not using it now. How many litres of fuel will I buy to be able to come to work? But with two or three litres of fuel, I can come to work on my motorcycle. It is not easy but it is cheaper. This government must act fast, Nigerians are suffering,” a state civil servant, who identified himself simply as Mutum, said.