The former Chairman of the Port Harcourt unit of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Inimgba, has urged residents of Rivers State to avoid panic buying, assuring that the state would soon be flooded with petrol in the coming days.

Inimgba, who is the Chief of Staff to the National President of the Petroleum Retail Outlet Owners of Nigeria, said the assurance stemmed from the latest promise by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, that over two billion liters of petrol would soon arrive in the country.

Inimgba also called on marketers to avoid hoarding of product since enough product is coming into the country.

He said “Rivers marketers are worried about what’s going on. They don’t believe that they will buy at N165, N167 and you want them to go and sell at N165.

“I want to give kudos to Rivers marketers. They have done excellently well. You can see in Port Harcourt, I won’t say there is scarcity compared to other states.

“Lagos and Abuja is even terrible”

“NNPC the other day came on air saying they have about over two billion liters coming in. We have also sent a verification team to know what is going on. We have our team moving around in Lagos and Abuja.

We have also discussed with marketers that there is no need for panic buying, there is no need for even the masses to be scared.

“Government did not plan to increase the price of the product not at all. Secondly, the states will soon be flooded with products, therefore, hoarding is not necessary.”

Inimgba also blamed the Nigerian mid-stream and downstream petroleum regulatory agency for the continued fuel scarcity in the country.