Queues across fuel station outlets in Abuja have continued despite more trucks delivering products to the capital city.
Daily Trust survey on Thursday shows that queues are still heavy around the Conoil and Total stations near NNPC Towers, A.A. Rano outlets with some motorists saying they spent over five hours before buying the product.
It was also observed that the queues are higher at the NNPC stations and some major marketers sell the product for N195 per litre than that selling for N250/l and up to N300.
Idowu John, a taxi driver said he joined a queue at the central area and got the fuel after 10 hours.
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“It was tormenting for us because you spend the entire time on queue and you will need to use that fuel to work,” he said.
Amos Bala, another motorist said the queues are worsened by the naira crisis.
“The service is slower than usual because you will have to go and queue at the Point of Sale (PoS) terminal and ensure your payment goes through before you can be served. That process has worsened the issue because of lack of cash.”
Our reporter also observed some stations at Asokoro that do not accept transfers and often do not use PoS, insisting on cash transactions which leave vehicle owners stranded.
NNPC Ltd, the sole importer of petrol, at the weekend, had blamed the February 25th election restriction of movement for product scarcity in Abuja and some states in the north.
Although it stated that there is over 40 day of petrol sufficiency, the loading break caused the gap which the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said has been filled as loading began on Sunday at the depots.
“Hopefully, as more trucks come into Abuja to discharge the product, the queue will gradually disappear, because we have seen a lot of them dispatched from the depots,” an official said yesterday.
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