Petrol scarcity disrupts business activities in Abuja

Motorists in Abuja on Thursday said that the unabated petrol scarcity in the territory was impacting negatively on their businesses.
Some of the motorists said that the scarcity had caused a lot of damage to their businesses.
Mr Abu Obe, at the Total Filling Station in Central Area, said he had been on the queue for fuel since five hours but had not been able to buy the petrol.
According to him, since 5.30 a.m., when he joined the long queue to buy fuel, it had been moving slowly.
Obe expressed doubt that he might not be able to buy the product as the queue was very long.
He called on relevant government agencies responsible for the distribution of petrol to the public to ameliorate the situation.
Mr Emmanuel Umoru, also a totorist at the Total Filling Station, said that he had been at the spot since 2:00 a.m.
Umoru said his inability to petrol was due to the long queue of vehicles at the station.
“I do not know what is happening in this country; we learnt that the Minister of Finance had released money for the marketers yet we have not seen any improvement,“ he said.
Umoru expressed worry over the whole crises, adding that the scarcity could hamper the general elections if not properly tackled.
He called on the Federal Government to expedite action on fuel distribution in the country, to guarantee smooth economic activities.
He said Nigerians were suffering from the scarcity.
He appealed to the marketers to release fuel to the public as government had released the money it owed them.
Umoru expressed dissatisfaction at how petrol hawkers had taken over the streets when the genuine buyers could not buy at the stations.
Mr Njoku Ejike, another taxi driver at the NNPC Mega Station Zone 1, said that he joined the queue for five hours but had not bought any petrol.
Ejike called on the Federal Government to live up to its statutory responsibility to the people by providing environment conducive for businesses to thrive.
He said that government should compel some filling stations that were not selling petrol to do so, to reduce the hardship.
He said it was a big surprise to him that Nigeria, as the sixth largest producer of petroleum product in the world, could not supply fuel to its citizenry.
Mr Moses Uwuidegbe, a civil servant who came to the Forte Filling Station at Zone 1, described the situation as challenging.
Uwuidegbe expressed doubt about getting the product because the operators of the station had not sold to any one.
He wondered why some filing stations were not having the product while government had paid them their money.
He advised the government to remove the fuel subsidy so that the marketers would import the product without any hindrance.
Mr Mohammed Shaba, the Manager of Total Filling Station at Central Business District, said that ever since the scarcity started, the station had been selling petrol at approved rate.
Shaba said the only challenge faced at the station was crowd control.
He said the station was overwhelmed by the situation because other stations lacked the product.
Mr James Alberu, a businessman at Yama filling station, Area 3, said Nigerians could not continue with the scarcity.
He called on the government to repair the nation’s refineries, to end the people’s hardships.
All the stations visited had fuel and long queues of motorists.
The NNPC had said that there was enough stock to last for 33 days while additional trucks loaded with the product had been sent to various parts of the country to end the scarcity.
The corporation said that the scarcity was artificially induced through hoarding by some marketers while the outstanding debts owed major markers had been settled to enable them to import more products.