The past few days has been a hard one for residents, commuters in the Amuwo-Odofin axis as Fuel scarcity hits hard on the Nation.
Majority of Station in the local government has seen a surge of cars and customers who want to purchase the product and waiting to fill their tanks. Most stations have been seen to selling fuel while some were not selling at all.
Festaconline news media correspondent visited some stations to asses the situation of the crisis. Long queues were seen to have been the order of the day most especially at the NNPC filling station at Apple junction axis causing serious traffic to commuters and road users.
Mr John Arowosafe, a resident complained bitterly. He said” I have been on the queue for the past 6 hours and I have still not been able to buy, in fact I missed many meetings because i need to fuel my car and generator.
Mr Nnamdi Ndubisi, a tricycle operator lamented , He said I have been on the queue since yesterday. I couldn’t buy from the station after queuing for more than 3 hours, i came back again this morning around 5am and this is 9l30am I still haven’t bought. I lost money yesterday due to this wahala.
Some residents were seen queueing at other stations who were selling at above 760 Naira per liter but the queues at those stations were not long. Black marketers were seen to have resurfaced along roads within the local government. Others were also seen queuing at the premises of some closed filling stations in desperate hopes of accessing the product.
An okada rider shared with us how he had to buy fuel for 1000 per liter just to try to make ends meet which he ended up making no profit.
The long queues stretched to road networks causing gridlock as well as NIPCO at Ago Palace Way.
In Festac town, queues were the other of the day at Mobil filling station at First gate axis were vehicles caused serious gridlock and at 23 Road axis sold at 608, Also Tecno Oil sold at 620, Peridot 800, and MRS 602 also saw to long queues as well and NIPCO at the Ago Palace way axis.
Asides from the scarcity and the struggle to purchase, there has also been increase in the cost of transportation, which has doubled on some routes in the axis.
Recall that NNPC on April 25 had attributed the scarcity to supply disruptions emanating from logistic challenges. Some officials of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said that the queues are expected to disappear soon as the NNPC has overcome issues which caused supply shortfall.
“As the NNPC said, they had logistic issues, which caused a minor delay at that time but now, they have started loading,” he said. “We have instructed all our members to go and load the product so that they would carry it and discharge it in their filling stations. “Some have started carrying it to their various filling stations. We expect the queues to disappear any moment from now as long as the loading becomes steady.” This was said by the National President of IPMAN, Abubakar Maigandi.