The scarcity of petrol spread to more cities across the country on
Wednesday with queues of desperate motorists becoming lengthier in the few
filling stations that had the product to sell.
Although the situation improved slightly from what it was on Monday and
Tuesday in the Lagos and Ogun areas, reports from other parts of the country
indicated that the scarcity had spread to more towns and cities.
For instance, the News Agency of Nigeria reported that motorists formed
long queues at filling stations in the Kaduna metropolis.
Motorists in Nsukka, Enugu State and Port Harcourt were reported to be groaning as the
pump price of petrol suddenly jumped to between N150 and N180 per litre instead
of the official price of N97.
NAN reported
that commuters were bearing the brunt as fares had also gone up.
In Birnin Kebbi, capital of Kebbi State, NAN reported that the few
filling stations selling the product had increased the price from N97 to
between N120 and N125 per litre.
It further reported that only one of the mega stations of the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation in the state capital was selling the product at
the controlled price of N97 per litre.
A four-litre gallon of petrol that was formerly sold at N550 by the road
side attracted N700 on Wednesday.
However, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria
attributed the nationwide scarcity of fuel to cargo clearance delays on the
high sea caused by security operatives.
The President, IPMAN, Mr. Abdulkadir Aminu, said the clearing processes
adopted by the security agencies were time consuming, leading to
delays in offloading of products before transporting them to depots.
He said many cargo ships loaded with petroleum products were being
delayed on the high sea.
Aminu said in a statement on Wednesday, “The Nigerian Navy and other
security personnel on the high sea have their own mode of operations as
security officers, and they can only explain better how they clear these
vessels.
“But to the best of my understanding, their delay in clearing the ships
on the high sea is the cause of the problem that the nation is facing today.”
Similarly, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has
threatened to go on strike over the delay in the passage of the Petroleum
Industry Bill and the current scarcity of petrol across the nation.
The union, which did not give details of when the strike would commence,
also blamed the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country on multinational oil
companies, the NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources and the Petroleum
Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.
The President, NUPENG, Mr. Igweh Achese, said this after the union’s
National Administrative Council meeting held on Tuesday night in Abuja.
“We are calling on the National Assembly to fast track the passage of
the Petroleum Industry Bill. We may have no option than to proceed on a strike
if the situation persists,” he said