Fuel Scarcity Ravages Jos, Enugu, Others …NNPC, NUPENG React

Vehicle owners in the Jos metropolis in Plateau State, are experiencing biting fuel scarcity, forcing many of them to patronise black-marketeers.

Our correspondent, who went round the Plateau capital reports that long queues were seen at the filling stations which had fuel in stock.

A driver waiting to buy fuel at the Mobil Filling Station opposite the Plateau Polytechnic, Jos Campus, Tamen Fredrick, said that he had being in the queue since 6 a.m. but had not been served.

Some filling stations increased the price of petrol from the official N65 to between N75 and N85 per litre, leaving only the NNPC mega station and a few others maintaining the official price.

Suleiman Ahmed, a commercial bus driver, said that he had stopped queuing for fuel at filling stations, saying that black-marketeers served him faster though at a higher rate of N95 per litre.

“The situation has forced us to increase fares so that we can recover the extra money we spend in buying fuel from the black-marketeers,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, commuters now wait longer to board commercial vehicles even at higher costs as few buses and taxis ply the roads.

The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr Austen Oniwon, had earlier in the week dismissed speculations that the fuel scarcity was a ploy by the Federal Government to increase the price of the product.

He said the scarcity of the product was caused by the string of holidays and work-free days declared by the government in April.

However, the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has described the scarcity of petrol in Enugu State as artificial.

Our correspondent reports that many filling stations in Enugu and environs locked their gates to motorists on Wednesday, claiming scarcity of the product.

The few that had stocks raised the price from the normal N65 to N68 and N70 per litre.

Investigations show that at Synco Oil and Micco Oil  at the 9th Mile Corner near Enugu, the product sold at N70 a litre. It was a similar situation at Real Point and Mobil at Abakpa Nike.

Stations like Externa, Oando and Antonio Oils on Enugu-Onitsha dual carriageway had their mini-gates securely locked while attendants who craved anonymity claimed they did not have supplies.

The MRS, (formerly Texaco) and Unipetrol and other multinationals on the same Enugu-Onitsha sold at N68 per litre.

The attendants said the meters were adjusted by their management late on Tuesday but could not say more.

The managers were unavailable when our correspondent called at the stations on Wednesday.

The NNPC Mega Station, Enugu, which was closed to motorists on Tuesday, re-opened on Wednesday and dispensed petrol at the normal N65 per litre.

Reports indicate that two other NNPC stations at Idaw River Layout and at Abakpa Nike did not have the product.

The DPR Operations Controller for Enugu, Mr Ndy Akpamgbo, said that the scarcity could be artificial.

According to him, there is no product scarcity; the lull could be attributed to the long public holidays, which many tanker drivers took advantage of not to lift products.

“With the public holiday over, everything is expected to revert to normal,” he said.

Chairman of the South East Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chief Chukwudi Ezinwa, attributed the scarcity to the long holiday.

“There is no scarcity, it is the long holiday, and you know that supplies come from only one source. Things will normalise soon,” he said

Ezinwa, however, alleged that while petrol was still being subsidised, kerosene and diesel had since been deregulated.

“Diesel has been fully deregulated while kerosene is still partially deregulated,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of Oil and Gas branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Mr Benneth Korie, says the fuel scarcity being experienced in Abuja and some parts of the country will be resolved.

Korie told newsmen in Abuja on Thursday that while NUPENG would play its part to end the scarcity, the Federal Government should move to check the high cost of diesel.

“But 90 per cent of the scarcity we are experiencing in Abuja and other parts of the country is that there is shortage of diesel,’’ he said.

The challenge before NUPENG, he said, was how to distribute more than 400 tankers loaded with fuel in spite of the high cost of diesel.

Korie, who maintained that there was fuel in the depots, said “ the problem is that diesel is scarce in the market.’’

He also said NUPENG would meet with government officials to find a permanent solution to the problem of high cost of diesel.