Fuel Sells For N400/Litre In Abuja, Others As Scarcity Persists In Lagos

Prime Business Africa has gathered that residents of Abuja and neighbouring states of Niger and Nasarawa are still facing tough times sourcing for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, with the commodity selling for as high as N400/litre by black marketers.

This Newspaper can recall that the development came almost one week after the import of millions of dirty PMS from Europe into Nigeria disrupted the fuel supply system of the country, leading to long queues nationwide.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has ordered the recall of the contaminated fuel but oil marketers have been battling various challenges, ranging from PMS supply shortage to complaints by consumers who claimed the bad product has damaged their vehicles.

Meanwhile, our findings show on Sunday that black marketers who sell petrol in jerry-cans are now the easily accessible suppliers of PMS in Abuja and neighbouring states.

A significant percentage of filling stations in Nigeria’s capital city do not currently have petrol to dispense.

Oil marketers told our correspondent that a few other outlets that had products were still trying to return the adulterated petrol supplied to them since last week.

Heavy queues greeted the limited number of filling stations that dispensed petrol on Sunday. Motorists spent several hours under the scorchy sun waiting to be served petrol.

The NNPC filling station on Arab Road in Kubwa, Abuja had hundreds of motorists who formed long queues that blocked the road and caused severe traffic in the area.

The Nipco filling station on the Kubwa end of the Abuja-Zuba Expressway also had a large number of PMS seekers. In Zuba, Niger State, it was observed that several outlets were closed.

Our correspondent also gathered that many filling stations in Nyanya, Mararaba in Nasarawa State were closed on Sunday.

This led to a worrisome level of scarcity in Abuja, Nasarawa and Niger, a situation that had kept dragging for weeks, even before the advent of the contaminated fuel imports.

The scarcity of petrol in filling stations created a business for black marketers, as they surfaced on major roads in Abuja displaying and selling their wares.

The high cost of petrol by black marketers forced motorists to stay in lengthy queues, while those who could not wait in the queues had to part with the costly sum for petrol.

Providing an explanation as to why many filling stations were still not selling petrol, the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, said some retailers who purchased the adulterated products were still struggling to return them.

He explained that the contaminated products were still occupying spaces in the underground tanks of the affected filling stations, adding that this had prevented the outlets from accessing new stocks.

“Where will you discharge your new stock when your underground tanks still have contaminated products that have not been returned? Many of those who bought the contaminated products are still struggling to have them returned to NNPC,” the marketer stated.

“I told you that a marketer currently has about 100,000 litres still in his tanks underground and as we speak, it will take him close to N700,000 to evacuate it. And not just that, the product is occupying space.”