From Suleiman Amagbor, Lagos
Lagosians were on Monday stranded at bus stops following the unavailability of premium motor spirit, otherwise called petrol at filling stations across the state resulting in astronomical increase in transport fares in the densely populated state.
Many were shocked as they woke up to be greeted with the unpleasant news of fuel scarcity, a situation that prompted a large number of residents to either cancel their engagements for the day or pay the high fares charged by motorists.
Citizenship Daily correspondent who went round parts of the city reported that fares increased to over 100 percent of the normal rate in some locations with commuters describing the situation as an unfortunate one and calling on the federal government to urgently address the challenges.
The fare from Ojodu-Berger to Ikeja which goes for between N300 and N400 jumped to a thousand naira while that of Abulegba to Oshodi, formally N500 went up to N1500 as motorists complained that fuel was sold for over a thousand naira in some filling stations in the metropolis.
A commuter, Abigail Dada, resorted to the situation saying “what is the essence of having a government that couldn’t detect that such development that will negatively affect the citizens is coming and work assiduously to prevent it”
Another elderly citizen, Pa Ebosele Thomas urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure that those entrusted with the responsibility should be made to face the music for such dereliction of duty.
“If indeed the President is a man of his words, I want to see someone shown the way out over such incompetence in addressing this issue that has lingered in the country for a week now. Some people should be used as scapegoats”, the elder statesman told our reporter in Ikeja.
Inside buses and various vehicles, the sudden change in travel time and fares was the subject of conversation.
However, the state controlled Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) maintained its fares to all routes across the state, prompting passengers to throng the BRT terminals with many spending hours before they could be transported.
Majority of the filling stations were shut down just as the few that had Petroleum products battled with the long queue of vehicles and Jerry cans.
The NNPC had assured Nigerians that the company has resolved the remote cause of the tightness in fuel supply chains, however the situation remains unabated.
Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd, Olufemi Soneye, had also attributed the fuel shortage to “logistics issues” which he said “have been resolved”.
He had also assured that, “the prices of petroleum products are not changing”.
Olufemi urged Nigerians to avoid panic buying, affirming that there was sufficiency of products in the country.
Also speaking on a national television channel, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry who spoke as a guest on Channels Television breakfast programme, said that the supply challenge has not been resolved.
“NNPC has outlets that they also serve. So, if they have some logistics issues, that will possibly be what is internal to NNPC. But as for us, PETROAN members, we can tell Nigerians for real that if we have petroleum products delivered to us, supplied to us upon payment for those same products, we will supply them to Nigerians.
“I would like to correct Nigerians that we retail outlet owners or marketers as they generally call all of us is the reason for this. We do not have any reason not to serve the public and we are willing to serve the public. All that is required is for us to have petroleum products delivered to us from NNPC and we will make sure that our retail outlets are open, some of them are even open for 24 hours. The challenge of logistics is only relevant to the NNPC retail outlets.”
