Abuja- Motorists in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have expressed displeasure with the unruly behaviour of security personnel and fuel station managers in the Federal Capital Territory.
They expressed the concern in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
NAN correspondent who visited some of the filling stations across the city reports that motorists now queue for long hours to buy petrol in spite of the availability of the products in most filling stations.
At the NNPC Mega Station, Katampe, Kubwa expressway, NAN observed that rather than sell the product to motorists on queue, the station managers preferred to attend to motorists willing to bribe their way in.
Mr Jacob Kwushue, a businessman, complained that the situation had caused untold hardship on road users, adding that security personnel also worsened the situation by jumping queues.
“The situation of fuel supply here has been so terrible, so bad that people are still on the queue yet they cannot get the fuel to buy.
“The stress is too much on motorists, we road users want the government to intervene speedily in this matter, talk to the marketers, have meetings with them where necessary and let us reach a compromise somewhere and get a solution.
“The queue is so long and it is increasing by the minute, and the organisation of the filling station too is equally poor.
“We expected security agents who have come to buy fuel to assist in the organisation but they worsened the whole thing by paving their way.
“People go ahead to go through the second gate, pay N1000 or N500 to pave their way in and they are served whereas those on the queue are not served; so, those are the problems that we are having here.’’
Also speaking with NAN, Mr Abel Akure, a civil servant, accused some of the fuel station managers of taking undue advantage of the scarcity of the product to make monetary gains from innocent motorists.
He decried the level of indiscipline at most filling stations and urged the new administration of Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent measures to sanitise the system.
“We have been queuing up but because the place is rowdy, there is no way to enter, the security that are controlling, we don’t really know the type of control they are doing.
“Vehicles use one way to enter the filling stations while we are still here. There is fuel but the management of the filling station closed shop.
“It is indiscipline and like are aware that the new administration is keen on curbing indiscipline in the country.
“As there is fuel scarcity, if they can ask them to sell for 24 hours, it would be better.
“If the new government can do something drastic within the next two weeks or one week, I think, the problem will reduce and the hardship will come down because we are suffering.’’
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A fuel attendant, who preferred anonymity, told NAN that ”anyone ready to pay his/her way in would be served without delay”.
At the Total filling station on the same axis on the Kubwa expressway, the scenario of long queue and desperate motorists was not different but buyers said the queue was moving and very organised.
Mr Anthony Eze, a taxi driver, said that the lingering fuel crises had paralysed his business and urged those in charge to do the needful to bring an end to the sufferings of Nigerians.
He said that the situation was not different in other parts of Abuja except for some stations in Gwagwalada, Karu, and Nyanya where products were sold above control prices.
Mrs Christiana Ejembi, a nursing mother, simply likened the fuel crises in Abuja to the popular adage that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass that feels the brunt’’.
She urged the new administration to ameliorate the sufferings of the ordinary Nigerians, and called on the government to find lasting solutions to the fuel scarcity in the country.
Ejembi, however, expressed optimism that the crises in the oil sector would be resolved soon. (NAN)
