Vehicle owners and Okada and tricycle riders in Ibadan and its communities woke up on Wednesday 21 August to discover oil marketers had increased pump prices to between N950 to N1,000 per litre
Even with the sudden jump in prices long queues at petrol stations have not decreased . Queues are longer at few NNPCL stations that are still selling at N580 per litre. Many are keeping vigil at these stations and not many can afford full tanks.
The newspot correspondents discovered that some petrol stations were not selling and this had abnormally hiked transportation fares.
Newspot spoke to some passengers at various motor parks and bus stops.
At Challenge Motor Parks Mr Busari Bello lamented that things had gone beyond normal “travelling from Ibadan to Enugu is now N40,000 before it was N10,000. From Ibadan to Lagos before on either cars or buses it was between N2000 and N5000 but now it is between N5,000 and N10,000.”
Mr Theo Ajakaiye one of the tricycle operators said they had decided to increase fares by 300 percent. ” One stop has increased from N 200 to N600 . The cost of buying fuel is changing daily and we don’t find customers as before. Many take to trecking however long. The roads are free . No more traffic gridlock. ”
Newspot correspondents have noticed how Ibadan once the largest city in West Africa is looking like a ghost city. ” Early in the morning traffic is a little heavy but from 10 am till 6 pm the rods are free”.
FROM LAGOS.
Speaking under anonymity, from Lagos some marketers attributed the supply difficulties to the inability of NNPC Ltd. to pay importers since March. They alleged that NNPCL, being the sole importer, was responsible for the scarcity.
Motorists and commuters in Lagos expressed frustration over the fuel shortage, which has led to a significant increase in transport fares across Lagos.
David Oketola, a banker, lamented that the scarcity had caused persistent traffic jams around fuel stations on Ikorodu Road and in Ikeja, with motorists queuing for hours at the few stations still dispensing fuel.
Edwin noted that the queues had been growing since last Wednesday and urged the government to address the issue to ease the movement of workers and residents in Lagos
“Some petrol stations that dispensed fuel sold it at prices ranging from N618 to N800 per litre, depending on the area, leading to an increase in transport costs,” Edwin said
Another driver, Gbenga Saliu, expressed frustration over the stress of waiting in long queues, stating, “It’s seriously stressful.”
“If you’re not patient in the queue, you end up buying from the black market at over N1,200 per litre or from some stations that sell at N800 or N700 per litre,” he added.
Meanwhile, Olufemi Soneye, chief corporate communications officer at the NNPC Ltd., clarified in a statement on Sunday that the company was not owing international oil traders $6.8 billion, as some media reports have claimed.
Soneye explained that in the oil trading business, transactions were often carried out on credit, and it is common to owe at times.
He emphasised that NNPCL had been fulfilling its obligations, paying invoices on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis.
He also refuted claims that the NNPCL had not remitted any money to the Federation Account since January, stating that the company and its subsidiaries regularly remit taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
“NNPC Limited is the largest contributor to the tax revenue shared monthly at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC),” Soneye said.
He further clarified that NNPC Ltd had no role in the fiscalisation of the quality and quantity of imported petroleum products, which is the responsibility of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
Speaking on Arise Television at the weekend, the president of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi, blamed the situation on “panic buying”.Maigandi said, “There was protest for almost seven days and most of the depots were not loading. During the protest, we informed all our marketers to sell their products in 24 hours so that there will be no side effects in terms of the purchase of the petrol.“Immediately they called off, then we rushed to where we were supposed to load this product and we have started loading. Some of the trucks are already on the way, but we are having some challenges.“The vessels that are supposed to bring the product to the tank farm were experiencing some delays in movement due to the rain, but that problem has been resolved.”
Some marketers, who spoke with THISDAY, blamed the endless scarcity on huge subsidy payments, despite persistent claim by President Bola Tinubu and his team that subsidy had been removed from the petrol marketing equation in Nigeria.The marketers said they had no option than to shut down their filling stations since the product was not available. They said only Tinubu had the answer to the scarcity, not NNPCL, which had become the sole importer of petrol and the risk bearer for the government.
THISDAY observed that on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, Lagos, only the two NNPC mega stations were selling the product, but with heavy queues of desperate motorists and jerry-can-bearing buyers that crammed the facilities, causing heavy traffic gridlock on the busy road.The Total filling station on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, was not selling, while the Northwest filling stations at Maryland Bus Stop was open, but with heavy queues that caused traffic congestion on Ikorodu Road towards Palmgroove.
The Conoil filling station in Ikeja, opposite LASUTH, was not open for business.At the Cele-Okota axis, only Pinnacle filling station was selling as of yesterday, while other nearby stations, such as Conoil, Rainoil, Emadeb, Total, and MRS were shut.Similarly, at Gbagada, at the foot of the Third Mainland Bridge, only Northwest Petroleum was selling, and still with heavy queues and resultant traffic congestion on the road.The story was the same in Surulere, where most of the filling stations were either shut or open for skeletal trading with heavy queues.Amid the scarcity yesterday, NNPC sold between N650 and N700 per litre at its stations in Lagos. But private marketers that were open sold between N750 and N900. Black marketers, who sell in jerry-cans, sold as high as N1,500 to N2,500 per litre, depending on location and desperation of the buyer.Expressing their frustration with the situation, some of the marketers, who spoke with THISDAY, anonymously, blamed the persistent fuel supply challenge on subsidy.
One of the marketers, who said he was a member of the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), said the problem would not go away any time soon as long as there was still subsidy and government was not willing to own up and address it once and for all.He said, “What do you think is the problem? It is subsidy. Subsidy is heavy in the system but government keeps denying that. Have you checked the cost of petrol in other countries? No marketer will be willing to buy and sell below the cost price. So only NNPC can import and sell at below its landing cost because it is government; because only NNPC gets dollars at the official rate. No other marketer has that advantage.
“So, we have said it again and again that subsidy is not sustainable. Because it creates the kind of problem we are seeing. Because it kills competition and investor confidence. It creates corruption and lack of transparency. The moment you genuinely remove subsidy from petrol, you will not see scarcity again. It will now be based on willing buyer, willing seller.
“So, I think people should stop calling out NNPC and blaming them. It is not their own making. They are government and government tells them how they want the system to be run. Government made NNPC the sole importer of petrol and its risk-bearer. No NNPC chief executive can go against the directive of the president.”A top official at 11Plc, owners of Mobil filing stations, told THISDAY that his company had run out of stock and had been waiting for new supply from NNPC.In Rivers State, THISDAY investigation across local government areas and communities revealed that a litre of petrol had skyrocketed from N700 to between N880 and N900.
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