• Scarcity bites harder
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo gave a marching order to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachickwu and the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru till weekend to clear the fuel queues that have surfaced in Abuja, Lagos and other major cities.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed told journalists at the post FEC-briefing that contrary to speculation, the government had no plans to hike pump price of fuel.
He also said Kachickwu told FEC that the NNPC has enough fuel to last till end of January 2018.
“The minister of petroleum was supposed to join us but he has to attend a very important meeting so that this crisis would be resolved.
“The government has no intention at all that to increase the pump price of PMS. The minister assured the council that we have enough products till the next one month, even till the end of January.
“The council gave him a matching order that this fuel scarcity should not last beyond this weekend and they are going to work very hard to ensure that it is curtailed. He assured council that there is actually no cause for alarm.”
Meanwhile, the scarcity has begun to take its toll across the country with long queues at fuel stations while black market sell for as high as N3,000 per four-liter.
In Kaduna, where long queues have resurfaced at many filling stations, an independent marketer, Benjamin Omale said they were not getting enough products from the PPMC and private tank farms in Lagos.
But in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, fuel stations were dispensing product just as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)monitored compliance by fuel station across the state. The Operation Controller of the DPR in charge of Ogun State, Mrs. Muinat Bello-Zagi said the monitoring exercise was to ensure consumers were not ripped off.