Fuel scarcity hits Lagos, Akure, Abuja

&NewLine;<p><br> Fuel queues have returned to Lagos as many petrol retail outlets in some parts of the state shutdown their stations&comma; leading to long queues in a few filling stations that opened&period;<br> This is coming after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation &lpar;NNPC&rpar; urged Nigerians to disregard media report of an impending fuel scarcity due to purported refusal by some oil marketers to lift products from depots&period;<br> Ndu Ughamadu&comma; NNPC’s group general manager&comma; group public affairs division&comma; had on Thursday issued a statement saying that the tale on fuel scarcity was fabricated by mischief makers with intent to create undue panic among Nigerians&period;<br> Ughamadu added that the NNPC has over one billion litres of petrol in stock while imports of 48 vessels of 50million litres each have been committed for the month of April 2019 alone&period;<br> But on Saturday morning&comma; long queues were spotted in some filling stations in areas like Ojota&comma; Ogba&comma; Ayobo and Ikeja&comma; creating gridlock problems in the neighbourhoods&period;<br> While there was a rapid build-up of queues in some stations along Ikorodu and Awolowo roads in Ikoyi&comma; it is understood that some stations stopped selling their products as early as 7pm on Friday night&comma; causing motorists to struggle to purchase fuel where the product was available&period;<br> Similar scenario has been playing out in Abuja&period; OpenLife correspondent says queue sprang up in major sales points in Abuja&period;<br> Meanwhile&comma;residents of Akure&comma; the Ondo state capital on Saturday&comma; resumed queuing at the filling stations for&nbsp&semi; Premium Motor Spirit&nbsp&semi; &lpar;PMS&rpar; as the scarcity of the product looms in the state&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Many of the fuel stations are under lock and key while the few ones who are selling the product were filled up with vehicles and causing traffic gridlock&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>OpenLife findings indicate that most of the fuel stations selling fuel to the public were owned by major marketers&comma; while stations owned by the independent marketers were not selling the product&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Motorists lamented over the scarcity expressing the fear that the situation will add to the economic hardship being experienced by the people of the state&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>A commercial driver&comma; Wale Hosea&comma; said he had spent over three hours at the fuel station and still waiting for the product to buy at one of the filling stations of major marketers in Akure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I have been on the queue for over three hours before I bought petrol this morning&period; The government should help us look into this matter before it grounds the whole country&comma;” he said<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In a reaction&comma; the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria&comma; &lpar;Ore Depot&rpar; Mr Shina Amoo&comma; who spoke to OpenLife attributed the scarcity of the product to the scarcity of the product at the depot&comma; saying his members were not getting the products to buy from the depots&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Amoo said&nbsp&semi; ” The product is not available at the depots&comma; so we have to buy from the private depots&comma; which is more expensive&period; We bought for N139 per litre from the depots excluding other expenses we incur before landing it at the petrol station&comma; so it may<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That is why we are&nbsp&semi; having the scarcity&comma; we don’t have enough products in the country but believe it will soon be resolved&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;