30th May, 2023
By Ayodele Efunla
Long queues for petrol bite harder in the city of Abuja on Tuesday but the product is available at the black market rate of N300 per litre.
Most of the filling stations in the city were locked while the few that opened had very long queues.
Many who ought to be at their workplace had to queue for fuel or buy at black market rate.
The fuel queues returned to Nigerian cities after President Bola Tinubu announced that the government will put an end to the fuel subsidy regime.
Mr Tinubu on Monday in his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, declared that there would no longer be a petroleum subsidy regime as it was not sustainable.
He said the current 2023 budget only has provision for the fuel subsidy till June, adding that the funds meant for subsidies will be diverted to creation of public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs.
“We commend the decision of the outgoing administration in phasing out the petrol subsidy regime which has increasingly favoured the rich more than the poor. Subsidy can no longer justify its ever-increasing costs in the wake of drying resources.
“We shall, instead, re-channel the funds into better investment in public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs that will materially improve the lives of millions,” Mr Tinubu said.
Hours after the declaration, fuel queues resurfaced in major cities across the country amid uncertainty over the effect of the new policy.
Below are some of the pictures from filling stations in Abuja on Tuesday.
