Fuel scarcity persists in Lagos

As I journeyed home from work yesterday, with the fuel gauge showing red, we looked around hopefully for a filling station to top the fuel.

Each filling station we arrived at was either closed with no one in sight, or filled with cars and angry customers shouting orders at the top of their lungs.

Seeing as there was no hope and with traffic situation waiting for us in front, we had no choice but to switch off the Air conditioner to save the little we have and made do with the natural breeze.

Till this morning, the fuel scarcity and long queues haven't lessened, instead the cost for the little available fuel has spiraled from N97 to N200 per litre in the black market.

It's really sad especially since I still do not have constant electricity in my area as some others testify to having.

This is not funny o! Abeg, something has to give soon; I mean very soon...

Read this story from BusinessDay to help you make sense (or not) from this situation:

The current fuel scarcity on Monday unduly influenced the price of the product in Lagos forcing motorists out of desperation to buy from the black market for as much as N200 per litre. The official price is N97 per litre.

BusinessDay checks revealed that more filing stations have joined the growing numbers of stations without the product. Findings along the long stretch Lagos-Badagry express road showed that a number of filling stations along the road did not sell yesterday, as they claimed non-availability of the product when our correspondent visited.

As usual during scarcity of this essential product, major highways and streets have become sale points for black marketers who are seen lining up the roads with kegs and beckoning on motorists to stop by and buy.

They are found majorly on such roads as Ikorodu road, Lagos-Badagry expressway, Apapa-Oshodi expressway, Festac-Amuwo bypass and some streets in Festac and Satellite towns, selling the product for N200 per litre.

Along the Lagos-Badagry expressway particularly opposite the Nigerian Army Cantonment, several of the black marketers who include underage children, women and young men were seen either standing or sitting by the road with several kegs containing fuel in front of them. This particular spot had over years become notorious for black marketing of petrol in Lagos.

There are insinuations that most of the black marketers are wives and children of soldiers from the army cantonment. They were selling the product for N200 per litre as none of the filling stations close by was selling.

Isiaka Yahaya, Auditor General of the Sahara Unit of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), said that petrol scarcity might linger in Lagos for some time.

He alleged that inability of marketers to import the product caused current scarcity. Yahaya said that the marketers could not import petrol because of government’s failure to settle subsidy claims of some marketers.

He said that only one depot in Apapa was loading trucks with the product.

“Out of the more than 10 depots in the area, only one was loading trucks and the loading capacity is going down on daily basis.

“Before 200 trucks were loading, but now hardly would 60 trucks load in a day,” he said.

Yahaya urged the Federal Government to engage the marketers and other stakeholders in the sector in dialogue to ease the sufferings of motorists.

The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has urged the Federal Government to call on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC) to effect the repairs of the vandalised pipeline at Arepo, in Ogun State, to ease the scarcity being experienced in Lagos.

Tokunbo Korodo, Lagos zonal chairman of NUPENG, who made the call in a chat with BusinessDay on Monday, also said the tank farms in Lagos were drying up as a result of the disagreement between the Federal Government and petroleum products marketers who are not importing enough owing to the debt being owed them by the government.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it has taken measures to end the current fuel scarcity in Lagos and some parts of the country.

Fidel Pepple, the acting group general manager, group public affairs division of the corporation, on Monday stated that the fuel shortage is due to the shutdown of system 2b, a major pipeline that evacuates between nine to eleven million litres of fuel from Lagos to Ibadan, Ilorin and the north due to serious vandalism by oil thieves a couple of weeks ago.

He said that to alleviate the problems resulting from the shutdown of the pipeline, the NNPC has stepped up distribution through tankers.