By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Over the weekend, motorists in Lagos, Ogun State and some parts of Abuja witnessed the resurgence of queues at fuel stations, causing some persons to embark on panic buying.
This is coming at a time the federal government has assured Nigerians that petrol subsidy will no longer be removed by July 1, 2022, as earlier planned.
The central government had only made provisions for the subsidy of the product till June 30, 2022, in this year budget, but after the labour unions threatened a nationwide protest, the government rescinded its decision and announced an 18-month extension for the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Speaking on Monday afternoon on Business Nigeria, a programme anchored by Mr Tolu Ogunjobi of TVC, which was monitored by Business Post, the South-West Zonal Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Dele Tajudeen, said the reason for the fresh queues is because of contaminated products in circulation.
According to him, members of his group were supplied with bad products, which have put them in serious trouble as they had to repair vehicles of their customers for what is not their fault.
He also alleged that there is a shortage of petrol from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, which is the sole importer of petrol into the country and that fuel station owners are now rejecting the bad product.
He further the group is working to resolve the issue amicably, stating that, “We need to be compensated but we don’t want to put the masses in another crisis if we resort into going on strike, demanding compensation because we know people are already in a deep economic problem.”
However, he assured that the issue of the bad fuel in circulation is already being investigated, stating that the managing director of the Petroleum Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC), Mr Isiaku Abdullahi, has intervened.
“Until the investigation is concluded, I don’t want to comment more so as not to pre-empt, but Mr Abdullahi is making efforts to ensure that all the depots are revived, he is doing a holistic rehabilitation of the depots,” he added.
