The Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said that 244 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) had been transported to Abuja and its environs.
Mr Garba Deen Muhammad, Group Managing Director, Public Affairs Division, said this while monitoring some filling stations on Tuesday in Abuja.
” Today alone, I think about 244 plus another 35 trucks came to Abuja and by tomorrow, we are expecting that it will continue and through out the week.
” We expect that this situation will abate with this ongoing effort,” he said.
He thanked Nigerians for their patience and noted that with what was observed, queues would continue to go down and eventually vanish.
He further commended the orderliness at the stations and urged managers of the stations not to support any form of sharp practices.
He said that the supply gap had been bridged, adding that effort was being made to get the distribution effectively carried out.
“In Lagos the situation is getting better because the motorists are cooperating, though there are some challenges here and there.”
On the allegation that taxi drivers engaged in multiple buying and selling to black marketers, he said that measures would be taken to stop such practice.
“I have heard about it too since yesterday; somebody told me that some taxi drivers join the queue to buy and sell to black marketers because they found it more profitable than to do taxi business.
” They have the right to buy the fuel but one thing they are not allowed to do is to sell it to black marketers.
” May be we need to be more innovative, because to sustain the system, we need to create a way that people will not take advantage of any situation to punish others, ” he said.
He added that use of indelible ink may be adopted to stop some of the sharp practices, adding that deploying security people and other strategy would be used.
He noted that the Port Harcourt Refinery had been refining between three and five million litres daily.
He said that Kaduna would be on stream any moment.
Also, Mr Justin Ezeala, Executive Director, Supply and Distribution, Nigeria Products Marketing Company, said there was more than sufficient products to wet the country.
He called on Nigerians to be patient as the cargoes were going through the system.
“As I talk to you now, we have cargoes that are in Calabar and Warri; what this entails is that it gives us the capacity to load for our people faster.
” Loading from Lagos takes about five days to take to Abuja and another five days to come back; so to shorten it, we try to move our cargoes to Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar.
According to him, it takes about two days to get up north and Abuja.
He added that in a couple of days, the products would permeate all corners of the country, adding that people should stop panic buying.
Ezeala said that the idea of one-cargo-one-day was still on and currently 12 cargoes were already on ground and another seven were expected for Wednesday and days ahead.
” The cargoes are there; I am just confident that we will not have the supply gap again,” he said.
Most of the filling stations visited were selling but with visible long queues.
The stations include Forte Oil Maitama, NNPC affiliates in Wuse two and Apo.
Mr Tayo Egwuleli, Regional Manager, Forte Oil, said there had been constant supply of the products and that the queues were gradually reducing by the day.
Meanwhile, motorists in Hadejia, Jigawa State, have expressed concern over hike in prices of petrol.
On Tuesday in Hadejia, most of the filling stations had run out of stock of the products.
Some of the available servicing stations being run by independent marketers were dispensing petrol at N220 per litre above the approved pump price.
A litre of petrol was sold for between N300 and N350 at the black market outlets.
Malam Ahmed Yusufu, a commercial bus operator, described the situation as “pathetic”, adding that the scarcity had exposed motorists to difficulties.
Another motorist, Mahmud Ali, noted that vehicle owners had parked their vehicles and resorted to trekking as they could not afford exorbitant fuel prices.
Ali called on the Federal Government to adopt practical measures to ensure availability of petroleum products in the country.
Also commenting, Alhaji Ibrahim, a petrol marketer, attributed the situation to sharp decrease in the supply of petroleum products in the country.
He added that the cost of transporting fuel was high, hence the hikes in pump price.
Also in Bauchi, Gombe, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba and Rivers, fuel sold between N200 and N280 per litre in most petrol stations on Tuesday.
In spite of the high prices, long queues of vehicles were noticed in most stations.
The high cost of the product has reduced movement of vehicles in highways across the states.
In Bauchi, the product sells at N230 per litre in a few filling stations that the petrol is available.
The establishment of a committee by the state government to monitor the procurement and distribution of the commodity had helped by temporarily stabilising price but scarcity of the product did not help matters.
In Gombe, the product costs N260 per litre as against the official pump price of N86 and N86.50 per litre.
The Controller, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in charge of Gombe and Bauchi states, Mr Zakariya Aji, said the department had sealed 13 stations for selling above the pump price.
Alhaji Bukar Gana, Head of NNPC monitoring team in Borno, said the company was handling 30 cases of diversion of fuel in the state.
A litre of the product sells for between N230 and N280 in most parts of the state.
In Adamawa State, Mr Sunday Akeem, Controller of DPR in charge of Adamawa and Taraba states, said the department had taken steps to check diversion of fuel.
The product costs N200 per litre in most filling stations of Independent Marketers in the state.
Meanwhile, some commuters in Port Harcourt have decried the increase in transport fare following the nationwide rise in the price of petrol.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the product sold between N250 and N300 per litre and commuters now pay more to move from one place to another.
Some of the commuters said that the transport fare around the city of Port Harcourt had risen by about 100 per cent.
Taxi drops formerly N500 is now N1,000 while buses now charge N200 for distances which commuters formerly paid N100.
Miss Chioma Eke, a student, said that she was finding it difficult to pay her way to and from school due to the current fare hike.
“ What I do now is I board a taxi to some extent and trek the remaining distance, if not, I will end up trekking home after paying my way to school,’’ she said.
Another commuter, Amekele Amadi, a teacher, said he now goes to work three times a week instead of the five working days.
“The salary has not increased but cost of goods and services have increased, feeding my family will be a problem if I go to work for five days,’’ he said.
Meanwhile commercial motorists said the increase in the cost of transportation was a reaction to the current petrol situation in the country.
Kenneth Tasie, a taxi driver, said that he felt the pains of the public, following the current petrol scarcity and hike in transport fare.
“As a driver, I am pained to buy petrol at such a high cost, I also feel what others are passing through paying more to go about their duties,’’ he said.
Another commercial driver, Amos Williams, said he bought fuel at N300 per litre.
“ For the past week, I have been buying fuel at N250 and N300 per litre.
“It has not been easy for us commercial vehicles drivers and we also feel the pain of commuters,” Williams said.
