Petrol Scarcity Lingers in Abuja
DPR dispenses 14,400 litres free in erring station
The scarcity of petrol in the Federal Capital City, Abuja, has continued to linger despite assurances by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it has enough products in its stock.
THISDAY’s investigation revealed that across the city centre and environs, vehicular queues for petrol were noticed at the weekend, indicating that the scarcity, which residents had to deal with during the tail end of 2017, has continued to linger.
It was gathered that there were sizeable build-up of queues at stations within the Wuse, Central Business District (CBD), Kubwa Expressway, and Garki areas of Abuja.
Investigation further revealed that one of NNPC’s retail outlet along the Kashim Ibrahim Way in Wuse 2 was locked up and not open for business.
Similarly, the long queues at the Forte Oil stations in Maitama, Conoil and Total stations opposite the corporate headquarters of the NNPC had extended further at their entry gates.
The tight queues in all of these stations were unchanged as at the time of filing this report.
Following the situation, an enforcement action carried out by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) within the city, however resulted to the DPR dispensing about 14,400 litres of petrol free to consumers at an illegal fuel station in Zauda along the Gwagwa Deidei Road.
The DPR’s task force which was led by its Abuja zonal controller, Abba Misau, also arrested the owner of the station. Misau told journalists during the exercise that the fuel station had no name, and was operating illegally within the area.
“We came here based on the information we got that there was an illegal station that sells above the pump price. That is why we came to confirm and on reaching here we discovered that the owner was selling at N210. We look around, we asked of their license but they didn’t have and they are selling the product to people. When I looked around I saw that it is situated in an unapproved site. It is in the midst of a community and the station is not supposed to be sited there,” he said.
“They have one case of illegal station and another, of selling above pump price since we don’t know of their existence we have to start dispensing free. We don’t have their record,” he added.
Misau, further explained: “We discovered that the storage tank has 14,400 litres and we decided to dispense to motorists and cyclists free. However, no sooner than we started dispensing that one of the staff went and disconnected the light while the machine was on.
“We will ensure that the security condone off the station until the exercise is completed,” Misau said.
He stated that the resurgence of fuel queues in the city was due to instability of product supply to Abuja and its environ, adding, “we have been given assurance by the PPMC that the product supply will be stable.”
“Since the station is an illegal station we will hand them over to civil defence to prosecute and find out from the development control if they have any approval for it and if not it should be demolished. Even if it has approval we will advise that it is revoked for safety sake,” he said.