Fuel Queues Return In Abuja, Major Cities As Marketers Lament High Transportation Cost
Motorists and residents of some major cities in the South-West region and in Abuja, the nation’s capital, have started to experience the return of long queues at petrol stations.
Although the situation was different in the South-East states as fuel and gas are available in the petrol stations, they sell above the Federal Government’s approved pump price.
Petrol is sold between N175 and N190 per litre while gas is sold between N750 and N890 per litre.
In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and Abeokuta the Ogun State capital the motorists started to experience the return of long queues at some petrol stations on Thursday.
In Ogun, it was reported that the long queues resurfaced after the South-West zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) announced that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) would be sold at N180 per litre.
In Ibadan the story was the same. It was reported that major parts of Ibadan, started to observe the long queues of both private and commercial vehicles at the petrol stations on Wednesday.
Areas the queues was reported to be more were; Bodija, Mokola, Sabo, Agodi Gate, Secretariat Road, Total Garden, Sango, Dugbe, Iyaganku and Queen Elizabeth Road; Apete, Awotan, Ijokodo, Polytechnic Road and Adamasingba.
The private cars and commercial vehicles had a long day queuing at petroleum stations to refill their tanks.
The queue was reported in all the petrol stations in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on Thursday.
SaharaReporters learnt that the queue might be connected to the outcry of IPMAN members in the state that for over six months, they had been buying petroleum products from private owner depots at a higher rate ranging between N157 and N158, due to irregular supply of products by government depots.
The gates of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), at Oke Mosan axis, had also been shut against customers for the past three days, believed to be as a result of the non-availability of the commodity to dispense.
It was gathered that people are in long queues to buy fuel at Mobil Petrol Station, Onikolobo and MRS petrol station, Isale -Igbein.
A motorist, Ajibola Ayodele, at one of the filling stations said the return of queues at the petrol stations was a result of panic buying.
In Abuja the nation’s capital, the return of the queues and scarcity of PMS, fuel marketers attributed it to high cost of transportation.
However, in the South-East States, the story was not the same.
SaharaReporters observed that fuel stations were dispensing petrol to motorist without queue.
A motorist in Anambra, Chika Nwenyi said to SaharaReporters that it didn’t take him five minutes to refuel his vehicle on Thursday evening.
The story was same in Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo states.
In Enugu State, Chief Alex Nawome told SaharaReporters that virtually all the stations owned by Independent Marketers were dispensing fuel except for oil majors.
“I think it is understandable because nobody checkmate or control the price here, there is product in all the fuel stations. The oil majors always sell the product to independent Marketers who now sell the product on their own fixed price. You go to some stations you buy at N170, N175 and in some places you buy at N185 or N190,” he said.