Fuel scarcity, long queues worsen in Abuja, Oyo, spread to Ogun, Osun

• Petrol sells for N200/litre
• Panic buying in Lagos

Fuel scarcity, which started in Abuja and parts of Oyo State some weeks ago, has spread to a number of areas in the South-West region including Ogun and Osun states as major filling stations have either shut down or are experiencing long queues of buyers.

There was also panic-buying in some parts of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, as long queues were observed in a number of filling stations in Ikotun, Ejigbo, Mushin, Yaba and Ojota, among others.

The scarcity arising from the increase in cost of diesel which the tankers rely on for transportation of petroleum products has resulted in an increase in pump price of the products to between N180 and N200 per litre in Ogun.

While the major marketers are still selling for the approved pump price of N165 per litre, with their attendants asking motorists to part with N100 for every purchase, the independent marketers are selling between N180 and N200.

There are noticeable queues in some of the fuel stations operated by the major marketers, such was absent in those stations owned by the independent marketers.

Apparently, people are trying to avoid buying where they would pay more and would rather join the long queue unless it was in a situation where they could not help.

Not much of a long queue was  observed in some parts of Abeokuta but was gathered that there were queues in Sagamu, Ilisan, Ijebu Ode, among others.

The NNPC mega station at Oke Mosan area of Abeokuta was reported not to have dispensed fuel from  Thursday to Saturday that our Correspondent visited the station.

The Fatgbems filling station, located directly opposite the NNPC mega station, was not dispensing fuel when our correspondent visited the station in the early hours of Saturday.

Also in Sango-Ota, Ogun State, some filling stations had long queues while others were not selling fuel.

There was also a report of fuel scarcity in Ile-Ife but the scarcity was barely visible on Sunday. Some filling stations were seen dispensing fuel to motorists while some did not open their stations.

Some dependent marketers who have PMS such as NNPC, MOBIL, TOTAL, TEXACO and BOVAS filing stations were selling fuel to customers. No queue was noticed yesterday in most of the filing stations that were seen selling petroleum motor spirit to their customers.

Some of the independent marketers have closed their filling stations for lack of fuel while some were also seen dispensing PMS to motorists.

The fuel scarcity had not been absolutely affecting the town as some of the filing stations had PMS were selling it at stated price of N165 per litre. Though some Independent marketers were on Friday selling PMS between N180 to N200 per litre before reverting to official price of N165 per litre.

Long queues were spotted earlier in parts of Abuja, causing motorists to hike fare amidst gridlock occasioned by the scarcity on the Nyanya-Keffi expressway.

The Chairman of the South-West zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Dele Tajudeen, said that the association might direct its members in the zone to increase the pump prices of petrol as well as diesel if the appropriate regulatory agency failed to address the continuous non-supply of the products to its members.

He said members of IPMAN in his chapter had been unable to access supplies of the products from any of the six government-owned depots for the past six months.