Abuja – Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Tuesday decried the growing queues for petrol at the filling stations, as the effect of the situation worsened.
The News of Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that unabated queues for petrol by motorists characterised virtually all the fuel stations.
Filling stations that had the product sold it at N87.00 per litre, the official price.
Some of the motorists said the unending queues had brought more challenges to their social and economic condition.
Alhaji Mohammad Sule, a commercial bus driver, at the ConOil filling station, opposite NNPC tower, Central Area, said that he had waited in the queue since 4 a.m.
Sule said that the fuel attendants had informed them of the availability of petrol in the station, the previous day.
He said that although the station had begun sale of fuel, he was not certain when it would get to his turn.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
Sule said that his business had suffered a setback as he had not been able to embark on a trip due to his inability to get petrol.
At Total fuel station, near Conoil, NAN reports that the queue was also long as motorists were seen eagerly waiting to be served petrol.
Others expressed regret that the scarcity had taken much of their time in terms of executing their business.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
At Total filling station, Segun Adebayo, a retired soldier, said he had spent 48 hours waiting on queue to purchase fuel.
He noted that his satchet water factory was currently experiencing low production based on his inability to buy fuel to power his generator.
Adebayo, who runs a sachet water business, said that the long hours he was staying to purchase fuel had negatively affected his business as he no enough time to attend to customers.
He called on the government and the stake holders in fuel business to resolve the problem on time, through prompt payment of fuel subsidy, to save the public from hardships.
He also called for the revocation of licences of filling station operators that had cases of hoarding fuel.
Adebayo said the long queue was because some stations were hoarding fuel to create artificial scarcity and more profiteering.
Mrs Florence Ene, a civil servant, who spoke at Total filling station, Area 3, said that she had been frustrated by the queue.
She expressed dismay that in spite of the claim by the Federal Government it had approved payment of fuel subsidy to oil marketers, there were still queues at the stations.
She urged the government to initiate a workable mechanism to end the recurrent queues.
The long queues notwithstanding, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has continued to appeal to motorists against panic buying of the product.
The NNPC and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) have assured Nigerians that there is enough petrol to sustain the country’s 40 million litres daily sufficiency.
The corporation said there was no cause for panic buying, as the available Premium Motor Spirit would last until November.
The Executive Director, Commercial, PPMC, Mr Justin Ezeala, said daily supplies of petrol to petrol stations across the nation had been sustained with over 600 million litres that would last 16 days.
Other Nigerians who bore their minds on the development expressed optimism that payment of N 413 billion subsidy arrears to oil marketers would end the scarcity.(NAN)
