Commuters, motorists groan as petrol queues resurface

…Black marketers take over, NNPC moves to end scarcity

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Long queues of motorists resurfaced Monday, in most petrol filling stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and other cities in adjoining states of Niger and Nasarawa, respectively, over planned strike action by members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners/Petroleum Tanker Driver, PTD.

The PTD members had planned to down tool over failure of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) to negotiate the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement for new working conditions for the drivers.

Mr Salmon Akanni Oladiti, the PTD national chairman, who disclosed that the collective bargaining agreement expired six years ago noted that the drivers union would longer be able to guarantee continued service of members in the petroleum products distribution across the country if new conditions of service for PTD are provided within 14 days, with effect from March 27, 2021.

Meanwhile, most of the petrol stations in the FCT and its neighboring town of Nassarawa and Niger state visited by the Daily Times were shut down, while a few that were selling were besieged by motorists.

Black marketers also had a field day as they were seen on the roads selling the commodity at exorbitant prices to motorists who could not afford to wait at the petrol stations.

This development is coming hours after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said that it has no plans to increase the ex-depot price of petrol, in May 2021.

On the Abuja airport expressway, many petrol stations such as NIPCO, Oando, Shema and MRS petrol stations were under lock and key as desperate motorists were on queue waiting in anticipation for the product.

Dan oil filling station, which was the only one selling the product had only two functional pump dispensing the product with people selling fuel in kegs outside the stations.

The story was not different along the Kubwa-Zuba Expressway as the only retail outlet of the NNPC station-dispensing petrol was jam-packed with motorists.

A fuel attendant, who does want her name in print, claimed ignorance of what might be responsible for the scarcity, but expressed hope that the problem would be over soon enough with the increased lifting of the product to major marketers in the territory.

Some commuters, who were seen stranded during the morning rush hour at the FCT Higher Capacity Buses Park, in Nyanya, expressed anger and frustration over the fuel scarcity.

Specifically, some of the commuters said the situation was exasperating and had impacted negatively on social and economic activities in the nation’s capital. They appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency, put an end to the recurring fuel scarcity to ease the hardship of residents in the capital city.

A commuter, Ifeoma Ubah, recalled that when the fuel scarcity resurfaced at major petrol stations last week, it took an unfavourable dimension with some filling stations dispensing fuel as high as at N120 per litre.

She said, between yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday), the situation has continued unabated with motorists spending hours at filling stations, and being unable to go to work.

Another commuter Daniel Amiah, lamented that commercial drivers are even refusing to convey passengers on the ground that they do not have fuel, so what you see are empty taxis at parks and garages,’’

On his part, a civil servant, Aliyu Gombe, narrated how he visited a filling station at Mararaba, to buy fuel as early as 4 a.m. and up to 9.30 a.m, (when he was speaking with our reporter) he had been unable to get fuel. He eventually left his car there, and boarded a taxi to work.

Daily Times reports that from New Nyanya to AYA junction, transporters who charged N100 prior to the scarcity now charge for between N200 and N250.

In the meantime, the NNPC has said that it has convinced the leadership of the PTD to shelve its strike, which was already causing queues build-up in filling stations in Abuja.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, who assured them that their grouses would be resolved in about a week advised Nigerians not to engage in panic buying.

He assured marketers that there will be no immediate increase in ex-depot price of petrol saying, the corporation has over two billion litres in stock.

“The strike was necessitated by the inability of their employers, NARTO, to increase their compensation leading to the industrial action. We were not able to resolve it last week.

“We have given commitments to both NARTO and PTD that we will resolve the underlying issues within a week and come back and have a total closure to the dispute, both in terms of government responsibility, NARTO’s and the PTD’s,” Kyari stated.

He added that the NNPC also had robust engagements with oil marketing companies in “respect to the increase in the volume that is being taken into the Nigerian market.”

He stated that all the stakeholders also agreed to work jointly with the security agencies to contain any possible infractions leading to some of the issues arising across the borders.

“We will allow the agencies to do their work and increase surveillance to make sure that fraudulent practices across our borders are contained and brought to the barest minimum and this involves the engagement of the police, DSS, Nigeria Customs and other agencies of government, given the responsibility of ensuring that no cross-border smuggling takes place,” he added.

On the impasse between the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) and oil marketers, Kyari stated that engagements are ongoing to make sure that payment issues between PEF and oil marketing companies are resolved.

“All parties will engage to ensure all protocols are stable so that ultimately, oil marketing companies will not owe the PEF and PEF will not hold back dues that are due oil marketers,” he said.

Kyari said it was also agreed during a meeting with stakeholders that the process of making products available to oil marketers would be improved henceforth, while the NNPC would ensure its implementation soon as a way of reducing distribution cost.

“Let me also assure you that NNPC will not increase ex-depot price. That’s the assurance we are giving. Petroleum products are very abundant. We have over two billion litres of petrol in our custody.

“Many of our fuel depots are stocked and there’s really no cause for alarm. With this understanding from tanker drivers and NUPENG, there’s no need to panic, no need to rush at the filling station,” he stated.