By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
For three days running, residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs are yet to come to terms why fuel scarcity has persisted even as relevant federal government agencies especially the state-owned Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) have kept mute over the sudden scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) popularly called petrol.
Prompt News reports that many filling stations in FCT closed since Monday over none availability of products and they still remain under lock and keys as at Thursday morning just as the few which still have petrol to dispense are witnessing heavy queues at the outlets.
Also, the scarcity has triggered the pump price to go up to N750 to N800 depending on the filling stations while those buying in kegs from hawkers or black marketers pay higher costs.
The situation has caused thousands of commuters in FCT and neighbouring states of Nasarawa, Niger and Kogi left stranded at various bus stops due to the scarcity of PMS required by transporters to run their vehicles.
Expectedly, this has led to a hike in transport fares in the affected states, as the few transporters who had petrol raised their rates.
It was gathered that the scarcity was due to a shortage in the supply of PMS to the nation’s capital and other states, as this led to the closure of filling stations in the affected areas.
Oil marketers, however, stated that they would hold a meeting with the management of the retail subsidiary of the NNPCL today (Thursday) to know the cause of the shortage and how to tackle it. READ ALSO:
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Hundreds of motorists besieged the Conoil and Total filling stations that sold petrol in front of the corporate headquarters of NNPC in Abuja on Wednesday.
This led to vehicular traffic on the roads leading to NNPC headquarters and other surrounding companies in the Central Business District of Abuja.
The situation is the same with the FCT metropolis and satellite towns of Gwagwalada, Nya-nya, Mararaba, Kwali, etc.
