Capital Oil and Gas Limited will this week deploy 200 kerosene trucks to the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas of Lagos State through its Mobile Trucks Distribution Initiative.

The company’s Managing Director, Mr Ifeanyin Ubah, said that 270 personnel had been engaged for the distribution.

He said that sales of the product would be carried out on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays every week while about 880 families were expected to benefit weekly.

According to Ubah, about 20 million litres of kerosene had been allocated to the company’s tank farms in Apapa for effective distribution in Lagos through the mobile trucks initiative.

“We have concluded arrangements to ensure that kerosene gets to the end-users at N50 per litre, while trucks will be stationed at every local government for effective monitoring.

“We have instructed the kerosene truck managers that nobody should buy more than 25 litres to avoid retailing by some individuals,” he said.

Ubah advised buyers to pick up forms in the local government areas where they reside and pay at any designated bank within the area.

This, he explained, was to curb fraud and abuses in the purchase of the kerosene.

Ubah also advised buyers to report any staff or official that contravenes the laid-down order.

Meanwhile, in a test-run activity, Capital Oil and Gas on Saturday flagged-off the distribution of kerosene in Amuwo-Odofin and Apapa Local Government Areas of Lagos.

Ubah said that the scheme aimed at providing the state with a good quantity of kerosene was a new strategy to ensure that the product got to all households in Lagos.

The Chairman, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Council, Mr Ayodele Adewale, praised the initiative.

Adewale said that the project would go a long way in easing the problems residents of FESTAC Town and its environs faced in queuing for the product at filling stations.

He added that the council had already sensitised residents on the procedure for buying kerosene through mobile trucks, saying that security agents had been deployed to ensure safety and peace.

The council chairman, however, urged the state government to ensure that the programme was a continuous one, as it would help to eradicate poverty.

He gave the assurance that the council would ensure that nobody bought more than the stipulated quantity and at more than N50 per litre.

Some of the buyers at Amuwo-Odofin, while speaking with newsmen, urged government to increase the number of trucks and the selling points to fast-track the process of buying.

Mrs. Sherifat Agbabiaka, a trader, said that the hardship experienced in getting kerosene at the filling stations in the last four months was terrible.

Agbabiaka further said that kerosene, which was the major cooking gas the masses depended upon to meet their needs, had become very scarce in Lagos and its environs.

Mrs. Alice Kojo, a civil servant, said that the product’s scarcity had forced her to resort to using charcoal for cooking.

Kojo praised the initiative and called on government to continue the project in order to decongest filling stations and make the product cheaper for the citizens.

“The government should find urgent solution to the issue of kerosene scarcity so as to ameliorate the suffering of people,” she said.

Mr. Adams Aliyu, a businessman, lauded the scheme and urged the government to ensure stability, alleging that some stations had taken advantage of the scarcity to impose a N100 per litre price regime.

“The product is very essential to us and government should, therefore, address the bottlenecks surrounding the scarcity and make the product available to the masses,” he said.