4th March, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
It has been hell for residents of Lagos and Ogun, two of Nigeria’s western states, since last week when the country started witnessing a shortfall in the supply of premium motor spirit, also known as petrol, at filling stations.
The situation worsened between yesterday and this morning with many residents stranded while vehicles that should be on the road are at filling stations selling the product at between N120 and N150 per litre.
P.M.NEWS observed that many bus stops were filled with residents waiting for the few vehicles that have also doubled transport fairs to various areas of the state.
For example, a trip from Toll-Gate (on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway) to Agege that normally cost between N120 and N150 was increased to N250 this morning by commuter bus drivers while the same Toll Gate to Abule-Egba that cost between N70 and N100 has shot up to between N150 and N200.
Commuter bus drivers also increased the fares from Toll Gate to Ikeja from N150 to N300 while Ikeja to Yaba cost between N200 and N300 as at this morning.
“The situation is unbearable. I couldn’t get to work yesterday. I returned home from the bus stop after realising that apart from the exorbitant transport fare, commuters became so desperate even injuring others while rushing to enter the few available buses.
“I didn’t want to leave work for the hospital,” Mrs Ronke Adedeji, who works in a private firm in Ikeja, told P.M.NEWS at Alakuko Bus Stop where as at 9am this morning, she was still waiting for a vehicle.
A civil servant with the Ogun State Government but resident in Lagos State said the situation caused him to trek almost four kilometres yesterday.
“There were no buses; the few ones that were on the roads fixed fares too high for ordinary people like me who wait for the end of the month to get salary. So I decided to use my legs,” he said.
Last night, many residents moving from Lagos to Ogun also had to disembark from their vehicles as the traffic situation along the expressway which resulted from long queues in filling stations along the road hindered movement of vehicles.
Residents were seen trekking from Kola Bus Stop, where the gridlock began, while vehicles were on standstill as queues from the filling stations had stretched into the road.
A middle-aged woman, who would not want her name mentioned, told P.M.NEWS that she had been on the queue at the NNPC filling station along Abeokuta Expressway since yesterday.
“I was here till past 10 p.m., yet I couldn’t get fuel to buy. So I left my car and went home to return as early as 6 a.m. today,” she said while wondering why no government body was explaining the cause of what she called a predicament.
“My leaving home very early has not only affected me, but the entire family. My husband was the one who took care of the kids this morning and got them to school before going to work. And I know that most families have been affected one way or the other. Is our government this insensitive? In fact, I am disappointed,” she lamented.
A bus driver, Semiu, said he slept in the filling station to get the product early enough for today’s business.
At some filling stations, P.M.NEWS also saw some vehicles just parked with no drivers and on enquiry, some attendants said the owners of the cars left for work since it did not get to their turn before time.
“The agreement is that they would be attended to when they return later after work because it would have been their turn by then,” an attendant who simply gave his name as Solomon, said.
Managers of some of the filling stations were not specific on how long the scarcity would last. One of them simply said: “as long as the government refuses to act.”
While the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had earlier blamed petroleum marketers of hoarding petrol thus creating artificial scarcity, the petrol marketers and tanker drivers heaped the blame on the NNPC’s delay in approving fuel import permits, warning that Nigerians would have to pass through pains for many more weeks.
Tokunbo Korodo of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, said importers got their permits for the first quarter just last week and this has created a shortfall in supply.
He explained most depots ran out of fuel supplies since two weeks ago forcing depots that usually loaded 200 trucks to now load 25 trucks and rationing the products to filling stations.
He said the NNPC could save the biting effect of the situation by releasing petrol from its reserves.