Kerosene Scarcity Hits Abuja Over Kaduna Curfew

The Abuja NNPC mega station said it had no kerosene to sell because of the curfew imposed in Kaduna State following the recent attacks on churches and reprisals by Christian youths.

Reports said that the station had had no stock of the product for almost a week now.

The development has led to the absence of long queues of consumers who thronged the station daily to buy the product.

The Operations Supervisor at the filling station, Mr Stephen Yohanna,described the situation as “unfortunate’’ but assured the public that loading of the product would soon resume now that the curfew hours had been extended.

“We have run out of stock of kerosene and that is why we are not dispensing at the moment.

“We get our supply of the product from Kaduna but the crisis there has hampered our operations here,’’ Yohanna said.

He reiterated the commitment of management of the filling station to ensuring the availability of kerosene always.

Sales representative at the station, Mr Baba Shettima, said that they were expecting two trucks of kerosene.

“We are expecting two trucks of kerosene from Kaduna, by God’s grace; we will commence the sale of kerosene to our buyers by tomorrow,’’ Shettima said.

Other filling stations visited by our correspondents did not have the product as well.

Sales Supervisor at AP filling station, Central, Mr Samson Olajumoke, corroborated the fact that the curfew in Kaduna had affected supplies.

“We get our supplies from Lagos, but they have not been able to supply us with the product because they themselves cannot get it due to the crisis situation in Kaduna.

“We are expecting to start getting it by next week; when we get the product, we will start selling immediately,” he said.

The consumers of the product have continued to lament the non availability of the product.

A trader, Mrs Taiwo Ajala, said that the lack of kerosene at the stations was already taking its toll on her catering business.

Ajala said that the NNPC mega station was the only station where she got the product at the official price of N50 per litre.

Meanwhile, black marketers are making brisk business as they are seen displaying the product in front of the various filling stations. They sold a litre for between N180 and N200.