By Adewale Sanyaolu
After four months of uninterrupted petroleum products supply, fuel queues suddenly returned to Lagos yesterday, even as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) blamed the development on a new price hike regime by private depots operators.
The queues which were first noticed late Monday evening worsened by Tuesday morning as majority of the filling stations recorded long queues of vehicles.
As at 1pm yesterday, some of the filling stations that sold product in the early hours of Tuesday had shut down operations, claiming they were out of stock.
In the New Oko-Oba of Abule-Egba, Total filling station which was observed dispensing fuel in the early hours of the day as consumers and motorists, especially those who bought into jerrycans had to part with an additional N1,000.
The situation was the same in filling stations in Ogba and Ikeja axis with majority of them unable to sell products.
A marketer at the Apapa Depot, Mr. Akeem Ambali, told Daily Sun that the petrol shortages at the depot was first noticed last Wednesday but worsened by the weekend.
He said there has been a drop in supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) which is the importer of last resort.
Speaking on the current development, Chairman, IPMAN Western Zone, Alhaji Dele Tajudeen, while condemning the increase, said that there had been a hike in the ex-depot price of petrol from N148.17 per litre to N178 per litre since last week.
According to him, none of the NNPC depots has product, leaving the private depots to take advantage of the situation to hike price.
“The only option for our members is to opt for private depots to keep our business moving. We are totally against the increase because it will affect our profit margins and also hurt the masses.
“Some private depots with product deliberately refused to sell for reasons best known to them,” he said.
The IPMAN chairman said that the marketers should not be blamed for the increase in pump price, adding that “selling at N170 per litre is not realistic”.
“Therefore, our members have no other option than to sell between N195 and N200 per litre within Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states, while we will sell between N200 and N210 in Kwara, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states.