Investigations by Rextun City Updates from last week to late hours of Monday have revealed that following the supply of a wrong specification of petrol in some parts of the country, and its subsequent removal in compliance with a government order, long queues have once more returned to petrol stations in Abuja, Lagos, and some other Nigerian cities.
Further revelations emerged on Monday that the current challenge being faced in the supply of petrol in some states was as a result of the directive to withdraw the bad products from circulation.
Majority of filling stations in Abuja were shut and motorists spent hours in the sun struggling to buy from the few that were ope. This has caused serious traffic jams in parts of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
When contacted, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) blamed the shortage of supply on the presence of bad fuel in the market as well as undersupply from the national oil company.
The particular cargo with the product was said to have high sulphur, while marketers were advised not to sell to consumers, with at least 100 million litres already in circulation at the time the bad fuel was discovered.
Also, it was learnt that the queues returned partly because the gap, which existed when depot owners started hoarding products before the announcement of retention of subsidy by the federal government, had not normalized. This has affected the lifting of the products to, especially Abuja and other parts of the north from Lagos, THISDAY reported.
The federal government had backtracked on its plan to remove fuel subsidy in mid-2022, citing the need to protect the poor and vulnerable.
Many of the fuel stations , including Eterna and Enyo on Olusegun Obasanjo Way in Wuse as well as Total on Herbert Macaulay, did not have product and more than half of the fuel pumps at the NNPC mega station in the area were not operational.
In a monitored television program, the South-West Zonal Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr. Dele Tajudeen, confirmed the existence of contaminated fuel in circulation while speaking yesterday. He exonerated his organisation of any blame. Tajudeen explained that that IPMAN members had suffered severe losses and may ask for damages from the authorities.
According to him, members of his group were supplied with bad products, which had put them in serious trouble, as they had to repair vehicles for their customers whose cars were impacted by the bad product.
“We need to be compensated, but we don’t want to put the masses in another crisis if we resort to going on strike, demanding compensation because we know people are already in a deep economic problem,” he said.
The IPMAN official assured that the issue of bad fuel in circulation was already being investigated, stating that Managing Director of PPMC, Mr Isiaku Abdullahi, was intervening in the matter.
“Until the investigation is concluded, I don’t want to comment more, so as not to pre-empt it, but Mr Abdullahi is making efforts to ensure that all the depots are revived. He is doing a holistic rehabilitation of the depots,” he said.
Tajudeen added, “This (fuel scarcity) is as a result of short supply from the NNPC and, of course, the private depots around Lagos. One of the major reasons for the scarcity is that the five NNPC depots in southwest as at today are not loading products.
“Also, we witnessed the issue of bad product and I must use this opportunity to tell the masses that it is not from our members. As a matter of fact we suffered serious loss of cash and integrity because we received the product from the private depots.
“As I am telling you, we have run into millions of naira in losses as a result of this bad product. So, the station owners are not responsible for these product.”
Tajudeen commended Abdullahi for his efforts at resolving the situation.
He pointed out, “The situation is not too good because of non-availability of this product, coupled with this bad product that came in the last two weeks. The products are being rejected now. So, because of that, there’s shortage of product.”
Also a civil advocacy group yesterday called on the federal government to take a decisive action against those alleged to be hoarding petrol in the country, and foisting unbearable hardship on the masses.
The group, in a letter to the Minister of State for Petroleum and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), specifically accused members of independent marketers of petroleum products of hoarding fuel, which according to them, was responsible for the long queues at fuel stations across the country, particularly the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs.
“Sequel to the foregoing, we call on the federal government to arrest the offending marketers, shut their filling stations and bring this on-going economic sabotage to an end. Nigerians deserves to buy fuel at an accessible rate anytime.”
Meanwhile, a reliable source at the NNPC said, “They (the queues) will disappear. It’s just a small supply gap. People are bound to make all sorts of speculations, but if the speculation continues, the downstream/midstream authority will come up with a statement to clarify the happenings.
