One week after getting some reprieve from fuel supply hitches, long vehicular queues were noticed at the weekend in some major filling stations across Lagos metropolis.
Majority of Major Marketers and Independent filling stations were actually out of supply as at Friday and Saturday. But the situation was further compounded yesterday when only a few of the filling stations dispensing fuel had long queues of vehicles.
The worrisome development, observers say may have been triggered by fresh threat issued by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to commence an indefinite strike by 0.00 hours today.
Efforts by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to resolve the lingering crisis between PENGASSAN and Neconde Nigeria Limited and Ontario Energy over unfair labour practices by the two companies proved abortive.
Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, attributed the latest buildup of queues in Lagos to panic buying.
Ughamadu said the Corporation has enough petroleum products in stock to meet the nation’s needs, stressing that the latest threat by PENGASSAN could have contributed to the queues.
“You will agree with me that the statements from labour unions in the petroleum sector are taken seriously by Nigerians. And in a bid not to be cut unaware, Nigerians would want to stockpile products based on this threat from PENGASSAN. But let me assure Nigerians that the relevant government agencies are already in talks with PENGASSAN.”
The NNPC spokesman equally said all of the Corporation’s depots are awash with products and supplying same to marketers, hence there was no cause for alarm particularly as NNPC was on top of the situation.
For their part, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Kano Zone, dismissed the claim that the current fuel queues experienced in some parts of the country was as a result of panic buying but rather due to inadequate supply from NNPC.
The zone equally said the allegation that marketers diverted petrol tankers meant for the state was untrue and unfounded.
The IPMAN Kano Zonal Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Dan-Malam, made the clarification while speaking with newsmen in Kano on Saturday, as prices of the product jumped from N145 to between N180 and N200 per litre.
“Kano metropolis alone requires no fewer than 250 trucks of petroleum products daily while the other four states under the zone need about 100 trucks each on daily basis.
He said when the scarcity started about two weeks ago, the zone was being allocated only 50 tankers, which were grossly inadequate to meet the public demands in the zone.
“It was only on Friday we received 114 trucks for the zone since the scarcity of the product started two weeks ago. So Kano and the four other states under the zone require no fewer than 600 trucks of the commodity daily to meet the need of members of the public,” he said.
