From Uche Usim, Abuja
Motorists in Abuja woke up to a rude shock on Tuesday morning to find many petrol stations empty without products, describing the development as an awful independence day gift to residents.
Daily Sun noticed queues in filling stations between Kubwa and the Central Business District. It was the same situation in Mabushi and Kado areas of the FCT.
In a telephone chat with Daily Sun, the Vice President of Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abubakar Maigandi, blamed the queues on scarcity of petrol at depots owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), a development that forced private depot owners to jack up the price from N148/litre to between N170-175/litre.
Maigandi also fingered bad roads as one of the reasons dissuading oil marketers from loading products at Lagos depots, as it takes several days to transport the commodity to Abuja and northern parts of the country; thus ballooning operational cost.
He said: “The increase in depot price of petrol by private depot owners was noticed last week. We didn’t get at NNPC depots and the private ones said the product is scarce.
When contacted on the development, the Spokesman of NNPC, Mr Garba Deen Muhammad, absolved the corporation of any culpability.
“The queues you’re seeing have nothing to do with us. It’s not the fault of NNPC,” he told Daily Sun.