The fuel scarcity is gradually getting to its peak as more filling stations have reportedly run out of fuel.
Only very few stations in the megacity now have fuel which is being sold more in jerry cans. Already, the dreaded black market sales in containers along the road and around filling stations by street urchins and agberos have returned to most parts of the metropolis.
As at yesterday only a handful of the stations had fuel to sell. However, one could not ascertain whether some of the filling stations that closed their gates to fuel seekers with signs of ‘no fuel’ actually had no fuel. At some of the filling stations in Festac and
Amuwo Odofin areas frustrated motorists accused the marketers of waiting till night before selling their products in jerry cans and at black market prices.
Blueprint monitoring of the situation along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway showed that of over 12 filling stations on the express road on both sides from Mile 2 to Oshodi, only NNPC Filling Station and three others were selling fuel to motorists. Some had long queues of vehicles waiting for fuel, while no sales were going on. However, in some of the closed stations black marketers were having a field day selling the product around the filling stations.
At Ojota, Oregun and Ikeja axis, the situation had reached crisis point as long queues stretch to the roads disrupting traffic. All the familiar commotions and fisticuffs that usually accompanied fuel scarcity in the past have returned in those areas.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has berated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for failing to make enough fuel available to Nigerians.
According to him, before now, NNPC used to allow marketers to import, but right now it is only NNPC that is importing, and could not import enough products to go round.
“There is no product at the depots, only two depots are having PMS at Ibru and Ibafon tank farms; only Integrated oil and Eterner Oil, most of the major marketers do not even have the product,” he said.
