Aregbesola backs gas-powered vehicles to tackle fuel scarcity

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has thrown it weight behind introduction of gas-powered in the country, advising Nigerians to invest in such vehicles for commercial purposes to tackle fuel scarcity.

He asked Nigerians to emulate Egypt in running their commercial vehicles on gas to reduce the current high demand for petrol and diesel.

Aregbesola stated this in his address at the public presentation of a book entitled: ‘Dimensions of Energy Poverty and Rural Electrification in Nigeria’, held at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan.

He said, “If all our commercial vehicles run on gas, a large chunk of the demand for petrol and diesel will drop. The mechanics will take less than a week to learn how to do the conversion and in six months, all commercial vehicles would have gone through the transition. This will reduce the cost of transportation, especially for the masses that patronise public transport systems.”

Aregbesola was the chairman of the book launch, which was to commemorate the 60th birthday of the author, Dr Yunus Akintunde, the first person to bag a doctorate degree in Energy and Environment in the country.

The minister said, “We can learn a little bit from Egypt where its commercial vehicles, particularly the taxis are powered by gas. These are the old Peugeot and Renault cars that are no longer in use in Nigeria and other parts of the world, but which have been converted to use gas and are still being used because they are well maintained.”