Long Queues Return To Lagos As NNPC Intervenes With 250 Fuel-Laden Trucks

The Long queues which rocked filling stations across the country a few weeks ago came alive in Lagos and Ogun states on Saturday and Sunday as desperate motorists and other users of Premium Motor Spirit queued up in droves for the product.

It is understood that quite a number of the petrol stations in the two states were shut on Sunday, while some of the ones that dispensed the product sold above the official pump price of N145 per litre.

Black market operators had a field day as they sold the product for as much as N250 per litre on Sunday, while some filling stations in Ikotun, Ejigbo, Isolo, Idimu, and Igando areas of Lagos, and Akute in Lagos, were selling at between N160 and N180 per litre.

Speaking with newsmen on the development, the Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, blamed it on insufficient supply of fuel.

He stated, “Definitely, if marketers have fuel, there won’t be queues. It simply means there is insufficient supply, and the NNPC still remains the supplier of last resort. So whatever they give to marketers, that is what marketers will dispense to the public.

“If you go to some DAPPMA stations now, you will see the tankers of major marketers dispensing there because the NNPC has not given us enough products for the last 10 days. Many of our people did not get products, and in order to keep their stations busy, they resorted to buying from MOMAN (Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria) members.”

• NNPC Intervenes

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Sunday said that it had released 250 trucks of petrol to Lagos metropolis for effective dispensing at filling stations to forestall any scarcity.

Mr Ndu Ughamadu, the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, disclosed this in Lagos.

According to him, there has been a slight change in the distribution network in Lagos, as Lagos is currently being supplied by members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN).

“At the weekend there was a hitch in discharging of petrol by ships which have been ratified.

“Today, 250 trucks have been discharged to Lagos compared to less than 200 trucks usually allocated to Lagos at the weekend,” he said.