Fuel Scarcity: RSG Seals Two Filling Stations …As PPPRA, PPMC Warn Against Panic Buying

President Goodluck Jonathan (middle), cutting the tape to inaugurate the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation in Abuja yesterday. With him are Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Sen. Lawan Ahmed (left) and the Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr Samuel Ukura.

The Rivers State Government yesterday sealed off two filling stations, Oando and Conoil, in Eleme Local Government Area of the state for allegedly hoarding petroleum products.
Rivers State Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources, Hon Okey Amadi, who announced this said the filling stations, apart from hoarding petroleum products, were also involved in fraudulent meter adjustment.
Hon Amadi, who expressed disappointment at the attitude of some marketers described the acts as economic sabotage, and warned that any filling station found hoarding products or adjusting their meters would be made to face the full weight of the law.
The commissioner advised members of the public to desist from panic buying and inform his ministry of any station embarking on such illegal practices.
He warned those hoarding and storing petrol in their houses of the consequences.
By hoarding petrol in your house you can cause wide spread fire outbreaks that can take lives and you can never imagine the level of damages to properties’, he said.
He also advised landlords and neighbours to be part of the campaign against storage of petrol in their homes because they might be affected irrespective of whether they are innocent or not.
He restated that normal supplies were coming to the state from the refineries, adding that the supplies from tank farms complement supplies from the refineries.
However, our correspondent who visited some filling stations in Port Harcourt and its environs reported that most filling stations were not selling while long queues were seen in the few ones selling.
From the entrance gate of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology Nkplou, Port Harcourt, to Education Bus Stop on the busy Ikwerre Road only two filling stations (Chindah Oil and Conoil) were selling while the rest were locked up.
Mr Ejike Ozmene, a businessman told The Tide that he spent three hours at a filling station along East-West Road and that at last the fuel got exhausted before it got to his turn.
At Total Filling Station, near Kampala Busstop along Ikwerre Road, a supervisor who identified himself as Mr Service said, “we don’t have product”.
He said virtually all major marketers do not have supply except some independent marketers who are managing to sell”.
At Conoil Filling Station, motorists and petroleum users were scrambling to purchase fuel with queues of vehicles and jerricans stretching to Udi Street.
An attendant who declined to mention his name said, the company paid for the product since 24 January and was only getting product today (yesterday).
The situation was not different at Aba Road, Chidi Nwakanma who was interviewed at Eternite Oil said for over two weeks, they have not got any supply and do not know when the station would get supply.
Chairman of Abali Park branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Chief Bethel Dappa said, “our members now struggle to get fuel and where they get, they pay between N120-N140 per litre.
“It is obvious that if the situation persists, commercial drivers would be forced to increase fares”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) says the reappearance of long queues at filling stations across the country is artificial and uncalled for.
The PPPRA spokesperson, Mr Lanre Oladele, told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that there was no basis for the scarcity currently being experienced.
Oladele said that there was enough stock to keep the country going for days, adding that with the release of allocation of licences to marketers for the first quarter of 2014, there was no reason for the fuel scarcity.
He described claims that the scarcity was due to the delay in the release of import allocation to marketers as false and unfounded.
Oladele said the last allocation was enough to sustain the market till when the next allocation would be released.
He said contrary to insinuations by marketers that their allocations for the third quarter of 2013 expired on December 31, 2013, they actually covered transactions up to January.
Oladele staid that the allocation was usually done in such a way that it would overlap into another quarter, to make provision for any exigency.
According to him, the marketers create the impression that allocation has been delayed for over one month and they engaged in hoarding of the products to create false impression.
He advised Nigerians not to engage in panic buying, adding “what we have is artificial scarcity, we have enough stock to keep the nation wet for days”.
Chris Oluoh