5th March, 2012
Most filling stations in Ikeja, Lagos State capital, Southwest Nigeria, have claimed that they have no fuel to sell. Most of them closed their gates to customers today, saying they had exhausted their stock.
In Ogba, Ikeja axis, only a few stations were dispensing fuel this morning while other filling station attendants said they had no fuel to sell.
Also along Ikorodu road, only two filling stations, AP and Total, were selling fuel this morning. Long queues of motorists had formed at the two stations while others shut their gates.
The scarcity which was noticed at some filling stations in Abuja, the Federal Capital, recently, is spreading to other parts of the country.
Residents of lbadan, capital of Oyo State have started feeling the impact of the scarcity which hit the ancient city three days ago.
Towards the evening on Saturday, most of the filing stations in the city had run out of fuel and they locked their gates to motorists who wanted to buy fuel.
The situation became worse on Sunday as almost all the filing stations did not open, claiming that they had no fuel to sell.
As early as possible this morning, motorists started moving from one filing station to the other looking for fuel to buy.
As at the time of filing this report, few filing stations were dispensing fuel.
Between Ojoo Area of Ibadan and lwo Road, only NNPC mega station was dispensing fuel while only Kenkudam Oil has fuel between Moniya and Ojoo axis.
P.M.NEWS observed that the NNPC mega station at Ojoo did not have fuel as at the time of filing this report.
There was traffic jam around the areas where fuel is being sold due to long queues of vehicles on the main roads. Notable among these areas are between Ojoo and Iwo road, General Gas and Iwo Road, Apata and Dugbe and Mokola areas.
Transportation fare has gone up considerably and commuters that cannot afford it are trekking to their various destinations.
Residents have also begun to buy fuel in kegs and jerrycans to keep in their homes.
Some hoodlums have started selling fuel in the black market. They have doubled the price they bought the commodity at the filling stations.
—Moyo Fabiyi, Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan