• NNPC injects 33 million litres into Lagos, environs
The Federal Government has ordered the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, to fix the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, rocking the country within five days.
A source at the Presidency said President Goodluck Jonathan, who is not happy with the long queues at filling stations and the exorbitant prices petrol is being sold to Nigerians, gave the order yesterday. He summoned the minister and ordered her to ensure that queues disappear in filling stations within the time limit.
“Mr. President has been told different versions of the causes of fuel scarcity. But he believed the one given by the NNPC through the Minister of Petroleum Resources that long queues were caused by some marketers who hoard the product. “So, he has ordered the Minister to do the needful to ensure that the long queues disappear immediately.
She has five days to effect this nationwide, according to what the President said” the source disclosed. New Telegraph gathered that the Minister, through the NNPC, had insisted that the scarcity was caused by marketers who engage in hoarding for fear that the government may increase the pump prices of the product above N97 per litre.
“You will see the result of this very soon because the minister had passed the directives to the NNPC, DPR and PPPRA,” he added. Describing the nationwide scarcity as artificial, the NNPC backed its argument by the disappearance of long queues in Abuja filling stations after a thorough monitoring last week. The management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had at the weekend said it commenced fresh measures to halt what it described as artificially- induced fuel scarcity noticeable in some parts of the country particularly in Lagos and its environs.
Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, stated in a statement that the NNPC, in conjunction with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) will commence detailed monitoring of fuel stations in Lagos and its environs.
The monitoring will also be extended to “any other state to checkmate the incidence of hoarding and panic buying of fuel. “We tried it in Abuja and its environs and today, the effective monitoring has decimated the hitherto long fuel queues in Abuja. We are extending the extensive joint monitoring to Lagos,’’ Ibrahim said.
The NNPC spokesman stated that as the supplier of last resort, the Corporation is doing everything within its mandate to alleviate the avoidable hardship caused by the fuel situation. He reiterated that the Federal Government has no plan to increase the price of petrol as being speculated.
“It is pertinent to state, for the umpteenth time, that there is no plan by the Federal Government to increase the price of petrol. Once again, we appeal to marketers to refrain from hoarding and to members of the public not to engage in panic buying. “We are convinced that in the days ahead, the fuel situation will normalise as there are enough petrol to go round,’’ he said.
In Yola, Adamawa State, a litre of fuel was sold for N250 yesterday. Aside a few filling stations selling for N250, almost all the filling stations were closed down. However, the commodity was available at road side `black markets’ and filling stations owned by independent marketers on most major roads and streets.
The filling stations owned by the major marketers such as Total, Conoil and Oando, were also shut down due to shortage in the fuel supply system. Mr Gibson Audu of the Total Filling Station on Banks Road, Jimeta, said that the scarcity of petroleum products was caused by inadequate supply from Gombe and Warri loading depots.
“Anytime the fuel is available, we will sell it because the situation is seriously affecting us,”Audu said. At some black market filling stations in Jimeta and Yola, petrol is being sold at N250 per litre. Mr Haruna Jibo, hawking on Jimeta-Yola road, said that he bought petrol from some filling stations in the night at a cost of N150 per litre. “We sold it to motorists between N200 and N250 per litre,” Jibo said.
The situation had forced commercial motorists plying Yola-Jimeta road and other routes to charge additional 10 per cent fare. A top official of NNPC Yola depot declined to comment while the state Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Yahya Tobacco, was said to have travelled to Abuja.
Meanwhile, the NNPC on Monday supplied an additional volume of 33 million litres of premium motor spirits to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN) who have run dry of the product.
These supplies, the management of NNPC said, were for onward distribution to fuel stations across the metropolis and beyond. Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the Corporation, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, who stated in a statement, maintained that this measure is part of its determination to ease the discomfort being experienced by motorists and commuters in Lagos and its environs.
The extra volume of 25,000 metric tonnes of fuel, the equivalent of 33 million litres of petrol, was supplied to the marketers as part of measures by the Corporation to end the artificially-induced scarcity. “While we intensify our ongoing direct monitoring of fuel stations across Lagos and its environs, we are providing the extra volume of product to eliminate the noticeable queues arising from the induced scarcity,’’ Ibrahim stated.
Source: News Telegraph
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