There may be total paralyses of economic and commercial activities in Abuja, the nation’s federal capital territory, except there is an urgent improvement in the availability of petroleum products in the territory, as fuel stations seem to have exhausted their supplies while black market hawkers continue to make brisk business, selling a litre of premium motor spirit, PMS {petrol} between N250 and N300.
Our checks revealed that many government workers and those in the private sector are preparing for the worst as the scarcity of petrol worsens, with many saying they may just have to stay back at home since they have not been able to fuel their cars while most commercial vehicles have practically being taken out of the roads.
Some of the workers, who spoke to DAILY POST, decried the current situation, asking if it is justifiable to buy fuel at N300 per litre in order to go to work when even the government has not been able to pay salaries.
Going around the city and its suburbs, DAILY POST discovered that only few mega stations were selling petrol with crazily long queues that seem unending.
A taxi driver, who spoke to DAILY POST, lamented that he had been struggling to buy fuel for days, adding that with his position on the line, he was not sure he will get to the pump before the station says they do not have petrol to sell again.
“I have not worked for the last three days because I could not get fuel to buy for my taxi. I have been on this queue since 4am and I am still not sure I will be able to buy here today. The line was already long before I came because I guess some people left their vehicles on the line all night. It is a terrible situation because feeding my family will be a major problem if I am not able to work”, he said.
On the impact of the current situation on commuters, the taxi driver said it is obvious it will affect them as he would definitely transfer the cost and troubles of getting his car fueled on commuters.
“There is no way it will not affect our customers; it is what we buy that will determine how we will operate. It is not a charity; I will have to consider how much I bought the fuel and the days and hours I wasted without work to get the fuel. Even if you got the fuel at filling stations, you will discover that almost all the stations now sell higher than the approved price and you still have to tip somebody or even the police before you are able to get fuel. Some stations sell for as high as N150 per litre from the pump. Its a terrible situation”, he lamented.
DAILY POST checks also revealed that apart from NNPC mega stations and selected outlets of some major marketers, fuel now generally hovers between N130 and 150 at filling stations. A visit to Sabon Bwari, where fuel had been selling for N130, now have a litre selling for N150. The same story goes for Kubwa, Zuba, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
Aside the challenges of fueling cars to ease movement, the Abuja airport has also been hit with the biting effect of the scarcity of Petroleum products, as hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport due to the cancellation of all the flights of Arik air, Nigeria’s largest domestic airline. There were also disruption to the flight schedule of Aero Contractors, as it cancelled 80% of its daily scheduled flights. These cancellation were caused by the inability of the airlines to get aviation fuel for their air-crafts.
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