Yemisi Izuora.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN has confirmed receipt of petrol from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
This confirmation was made by Alamu Ayo, chairman Ejigbo branch of the Association who said that loading has resumed at the major reception facility in Lagos even as queues which resurfaced in the state at the weekend continues to grow, pushing cost of services especially transportation fare up.
Ejigbo depot is a major reception infrastructure which holds significant quantity of products serving Lagos State and other states in the south west.
Ayo informed Oriental News Nigeria that the current scarcity was caused by non supply of petrol to the depot by NNPC.
“Throughout last week we did not receive any product from NNPC, and this is the major supply channel that pumps products to other areas, so this largely contributed to the resurgence of queues across the state”, he explained.
He said however, that the depot has commenced normal loading, “At the moment we are doing 80-90 trucks a day and if supply is steady and at the pace we are going by Thursday the queues will begin to disappear”, he assured.
Similarly, Mike Osatuyi national operations director of IPMAN, said aside resumption of normal loading, the Association has entered into a new arrangement with the NNPC on products supply.
Osatuyi said when the agreement is implemented it will help reduce products going to wrong hands.
Under the new arrangement, NNPC will now supply products directly to the Association who will in turn ensure the products are given to authentic members with verifiable address to eliminate diversion and other sharp practices, he said.
Oriental News Nigeria reports that petrol queues re-surfaced in parts of Lagos state on Saturday fueling fresh fears of another round of acute scarcity of petrol which marred Christmas and new year celebrations.
Situation report by our editorial team who monitored the situation observed that the queue which was noticed in the early hours of the day lengthened towards evening.
Many of the filling stations operated by major marketers were not selling while outlets owned by Independent Marketers were shut.
Alhaji Biodun Lawal spokesman of NipCo while responding to inquiries said though the company was consistently loading and supplying to marketers, nevertheless the volume has marginally dropped.
“I can confirm we are currently loading but I don’t have the statistics however I must say that we don’t have enough supply at the moment. I think that explains the resurgence of queue at filling stateions”, he said.
In his reaction Femi Adewole, executive secretary of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketing Association, DAPPMA, declared that there is shortage of petrol supply across the country.
Adewole said that what is playing up at the moment is the preference of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. NNPC, deploying more supply to major marketers.
“The truth is that there is short supply at the moment, if NNPC can raise supply we will be able to get to inland areas and focus on major cities but I can tell you there is no much supply from NNPC”, he explained.
The secretary further said that in efforts to ensure steady products circulation most Depots that are not operating 24 hours currently do 18 hours but where there is shortage in supply such efforts would not be felt.
Meanwhile, the persisting fuel scarcity is presently taking its toll on the residents of Lagos metropolis leading to the emergence of black market across the state.
Oriental News Nigeria reports a rapid increase in number of petrol hawkers who are catching on the situation to make a quick money from frustrated motorists.
It was observed that since the scarcity started at the weekend a lot of hawkers have flooded virtually all the streets of the nation’s capital, selling products to desperate buyers.
It was observed that most stations on Ikorodu road, Ikeja, Lekki and Maryland were selling with lots of queues.
Further checks also revealed that petrol filling stations within the city and few owned by some major marketers in the outskirt of Lagos metropolis still sells at the official price of N145 per litre, while other stations now selling at between N170-N200 per litre.
The petrol hawkers sells in jerry cans at prices ranging from N200, N250 and N300 per litre. A 5litre gallon is sold at N1500 and N2,000 in some areas and could be lesser, depending on the bargain power of the buyer.
Accordingly, due to the persisting scarcity, many commuters are left stranded at the various bus stops due to lack of commercials vehicles, while the few ones still plying have jerked up their fares by more than 20 per cent.
Most marketers who spoke on account of anonymity blamed NNPC for the ongoing scarcity across the county, adding that there are shortfall on importation of petrol by NNPC who is sole importer.
They claimed that all the five depots in the South West zone had not loaded any trucks since last week Friday.
The marketers appealed to government to urgently deregulate the downstream sector to address the ongoing lingering scarcity.
Nevertheless, the Federal Government has said that about 250 trucks of petrol was released to Lagos metropolis on Sunday to addressed the lingering scarcity.
Ndu Ughamadu the NNPC spokesman said that the ongoing queues at the stations was due to hitches by ships discharging petrol in Lagos at weekend but it has been addressed.
He urged motorist to avoid panic buying, adding that the queues will soon disappeared.