In
spite of assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
NNPC, on Friday that the fuel scarcity that resurfaced in most major
cities last Thursday would soon disappear, the situation worsened at the
weekend in Abuja and environs.
Long queues of anxious
motorists continued to build outside most filling stations in the
capital city, as most vehicle owners and commercial cab operators
virtually relocated from their homes to the stations in an attempt to
buy some quantity of the elusive essential commodity.
Some
motorists, who said they woke up early on Sunday to see if they could
buy fuel, were disappointed as stocks in most filling stations ran dry
shortly after mid-day.
Except at the NNPC mega filling station
in the Central Business District, most other filling stations were out
of stock early, leaving long queues of vehicles stretching into
distances.
The Conoil and Total filling stations located
opposite the NNPC headquarters were dispensing till afternoon on Sunday,
when they exhausted their stocks, while the Forte Oil filling station
adjacent to NNPC mega station and Oando in Zone 1 were completely
shut-down.
The Total and Oando filling stations at the Julius
Berger round about, which sold the previous evening, did not have fuel
to dispense to their customers by afternoon on Sunday, same as the
Mobil, Conoil filling stations at Utako and IPCO, Forte Oil and Oando
service stations at Jabi.
The situation was not different with
most filling stations along the Airport Road, AYA, Maraba, Kubwa and
Suleja in neighbouring Niger State.
In the wake of the
worsening fuel crisis, the NNPC on Friday warned petroleum products
consumers against panic buying and hoarding of fuel.
The
Corporation’s spokesperson, Ohi Alegbe, who described the fuel queues
noticed in some fuel stations across the country as artificial, said it
was not necessary to switch on to the panic mode in desperate search for
products, as adequate provision had been made for fuel supply within 48
hours.
Mr. Alegbe, who allayed the fears of consumers, said an
additional volume of about 688 million litres of petrol had been
supplied to the market for distribution.
The NNPC, he said, was working with all downstream industry operators, particularly marketers, to resolve the supply crisis.
Apart
from having a healthy stock in its reserves at the strategic depots, he
said the corporation had substantially increased the volume of
petroleum products distributed to marketers, to check any short fall
capable of triggering fears of an imminent scarcity of products.
However,
the NNPC is still confident that the situation would soon normalise, as
it takes days to completely resolve a disruption in the supply of
products throughout the country.
Meanwhile, there was a stampede
Monday morning as motorists on fuel queue outside the Mobil Filling
station beside Mountain of Fire Church. Utako, scampered for safety
after a tricycle popularly called (Keke NAPEP) caught fire near the
station.
Credit: Bassey Udo/Premium Times
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