The on-going petrol scarcity across major cities in Nigeria has unleashed untold harship and panic among motorists and commuters.
One of the first sure signs that there is scarcity of fuel in town is the presence of long queues of vehicles at filling stations with an army of jerry can-wielding buyers in tow.
There has been strong signal of possible return of long queues at the filling stations following the comment of possible hike of price of fuel by government officlas on the power of rise in price of crude oil at the international market.
The attempt to place Nigerians on red alert of what might posible be the coming their way only led to more panic and suffering as many motorists got hooked up at filling stations for hours. On the other hand, commutters were left stranded at bus-stops for hours waiting for vehicles that were not forthcoming.
In the midst of ensuing confusion, black marketers sprang up from no where with kegs of fuel. However, the prices offered by the black marketers were something out of this world as a litre of feul was going for between
N250 and N600 .
The Jerry can-wielding sellers also known as black market took over some parts of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. As at Monday, a litre of fuel was going for between N163- N167 at filling stations but with a very long queues. So for motorists who could not stand the long queues, the alternative was to cough out as mucrh as N3000 to N6000 for ten (10) litres of petrol depending on the motorists bargaining skills. Ordinarily the ten litres would have gone for N1,630.
Our correspondent who visited some filling stations witnessed the brisk business as black marketers in their numbers were placed on premium as against the long queues of motorists.
They were also aided by feul attendants who preferred dispensing fuel to them rather than motorists because of the extra money they make from them.
One of the motorists who spoke to our correspondent said “I bought 10 litres of fuel for #6,000 on my way to the office from Kubwa this morning but here I am waiting to buy fuel again from the filling station because the black market isn’t enough”.
However, authorities such as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) had on Sunday advised Nigerians to stop panic buying and stocking of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol.
Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, the National Public Relations Officer of IPMAN, said “we want to assure the buyers that government and marketers are doing everything possible to ensure that the products are available in every filling station within a few days starting from Sunday.”
Nigeria has particularly experienced fuel shortages in recent years, which usually result in long queues for fuel, wide spread power cuts at businesses that rely on petrol-driven generators to withstand frequent power outages and grounded planes.
Many Nigerians also attribute the fuel shortages to politics and not the market forces of demand and supply.
