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Nigerian govt blames marketers for fuel scarcity

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The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, on Wednesday, accused petroleum marketers of frustrating the Federal Government’s efforts at making petrol available to Nigerians.

Sylva, who addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said the government has done everything required to make the product available to Nigerians but the efforts were thwarted by the marketers.

The minister said President Muhammadu Buhari was worried over the long queues at petrol stations across the country

He, however, assured the citizens that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other stakeholders were working hard to address the problem.

READ ALSO: Petroleum minister, Sylva, says fuel at N300 per litre not too much for Nigerians

Queues in filling stations surfaced in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and other parts of the country in the latter part of last year with marketers selling the products at between N200 and N250 per litre to the surprise of Nigerians.

Sylva said: “At the moment today, there is supply but unfortunately, we are experiencing some bottlenecks in the distribution and movement of the product to various destinations.

“We have reports of profiteering by marketers and I have directed the pricing regulatory agency, Nigerian Midstream, and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to sanction anybody who profiteers in this kind of situation.”

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