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Nigerians groan as fuel scarcity lingers, govt fails to punish culprits of adulterated fuel

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Nigerians paid less for petrol in May— NBS

The month of February induced a throwback to the turbulent pre-1999 days whereby ubiquitous queues dotted Nigeria’s major cities as a result of incessant fuel scarcity.

One month after the Federal Government through the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mele Kyari, explained how adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol was imported into Nigeria from Belgium undetected as well as the oil companies that brought it in, no persons and/or companies have been prosecuted.

Kyari revealed that the adulterated fuel was imported into the country by four importers from Antwerp in Belgium with quality inspectors failing to detect the high level of Methanol it contained, first at the point of export in Belgium and later at the point of arrival in Nigeria.

A statement by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) also specified that the current shortage was due to the discovery of 100 million litres of imported petrol in the supply chain with “methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specifications”, leading to an emergency withdrawal of unnamed volumes of the product.

The NMDPRA is the Technical and Commercial Regulator of Midstream and Downstream Operations.

Meanwhile, the consequences have been devastating for the average Nigerian. Across the country, millions of people are spending hours daily on queues jostling for the meagre fuel in circulation.

Motorists in Abuja have continued to experience hardship following the fuel scarcity.

Many of the motorists said they wake up as early as 4 a.m. to queue at fueling stations for the product, adding that they could not afford to buy from the black market.

The motorists blamed some of the filling stations for the scarcity, saying that they do not sell during the daytime but rather preferred to sell to black marketers at night.

As a result, the filling stations claim not to have fuel during the day.

Checks around retail outlets at Maitama, Wuse, Gwarimpa, Wuye, and Kubwa expressways revealed that the queues were getting longer by the day.

Read also: Big trouble for Nigeria as oil price nears $112 per barrel, highest since 2011

According to some motorists, some fuel stations only sold a maximum of N5,000 petrol to each buyer who may have spent over ten hours on the queue at a time.

Only a few petroleum marketers sold the product at the pump price of N165 per litre in Kano city.

Checks further revealed that such filling stations attracted high patronage, leading to resurfacing of long queues, where motorists spent several hours refilling their vehicles.

Some filling stations, particularly around the Kano environ, had the product in stock, but closed in the daytime and open in the night to sell at exorbitant prices ranging from between N235 and N245.

In Lagos, most independent marketers hiked the pump price to between N200 to N350, according to a survey of selected fuel stations along Ikorodu Road, Gbagada Expressway and Ejigbo.

Furthermore, Nigerians had to grapple with the malfunctioning of their cars, which they said happened after they added low-quality petrol to their vehicles.

Some motorists said the fuel they purchased from filling stations affected their cars, making them spend money to fix the vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Oyo State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), on Monday threatened to arrest and prosecute fuel marketers who were hoarding the product or selling above the approved pump price.

The state Commandant, Michael Adaralewa, had warned, at a news briefing and parade of fraud suspects in Ibadan, for fuel marketers to desist from imposing “artificial scarcity” on the people.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had repeatedly pledged to ensure widespread availability of the product but statements emanating from some marketers show that the scarcity might continue for a while due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An oil trader under the NNPC who spoke to Punch said, “Now, Russia has attacked Ukraine. What is the impact of Russia’s attack on Ukraine on Nigeria? Russia is an oil-producing country, for Ukraine, our refined products come from that part of the world, not only Western Europe.

“So, the price has gone up because our refined products come from that part of the world and disturbances such as the one happening there will impact supply one way or the other.”

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