Queues remain at Abuja filling stations

There were chaotic scenes at some filling stations in Abuja yesterday as disagreements raged among frantic motorists over queue turns.

MRS, Oando and Conoil stations all in Jabi/Utako District didn’t dispense fuel yesterday as they were all deserted and locked from motorists.

At the NIPCO station located on Obafemi Awolowo Way also in Jabi, the scramble for fuel took a fierce turn when private vehicle owners who had queued from as early as 7:00am were overtaken by some aggressive commercial drivers in a bid to beat the queue for express service at the pumps.

The private vehicle owners’ resistance resulted in verbal exchanges, forcing the entire road to be temporarily shut to other road users.

The tense atmosphere at the station was doused when some soldiers and VIO officers arrived the scene.

The commercial vehicle owners identified to have violated the queues were reprimanded by the soldiers while their plate numbers were confiscated by the VIO team.

Long queues of vehicles and motorbikes were the spectacle at fillings stations along the Kubwa expressway which dispensed fuel.

In Apo, A. A. Butu and Sons Fuel Station located in Dankogi axis was shutdown, leaving motorists struggling to buy fuel from Minimart fuel station located along Lokogowa way.

A motorist, Peter Uchenna, said he had been on the queue for over five hours, adding that he left his house very early in the morning. He said he left Gudu for Lokogoma in search of fuel as the only fuel station in his area started dispensing fuel the previous day since the station shutdown over a week ago and that the pump operators were selling to black marketers instead of motorists.

“They are collecting N600 extra from black marketers for every 25 litres they buy. They are getting more money from them than the motorists who pay N87 per litre,” Uchenna said.

He lamented that black marketers were still causing the delay in Lokogoma as the fuel station workers gave them priority. The situation was more worrisome at the AP fuel station close to the National Assembly quarters in Apo where motorists appeared worn-out in the long queues. A motorist was seen engaging in a brawl with another who bashed his car as they struggled to outsmart each other on the queue.

A cab man who identified himself as Goni, narrated his ordeal trying to get fuel since the previous day.

He said he had been on queue at an unnamed fuel station in Asokoro the previous day till 9pm and when it got to his turn, the station announced it was time to close. He drove home with the little fuel in his reserve and came to the AP station the next day but the crowd he met was overwhelming.