By Olusegun Olanrewaju
The New Year in Nigeria broke with the familiar problem of fuel shortage nationwide, but yesterday, they got more than they bargained for by way of inconveniences and induced insomnia when many motorists and customers even had to sleep at filling stations to secure supply.

Fuel scarcity has been biting hard in frequent spasms since early last year but many customers were moved to desperation and agony yesterday, groaning about the harrowing experiences they go through to fill their vehicle tanks and purchase fuel for domestic and other uses.

A motorist, Victor Uwem, summarised the woe at a filling station yesterday, saying he slept at one of the Mobil filling station outlets around the Jakande area of Isolo, Lagos.

“I got to the filling station around 4pm the previous night, only to get to buy fuel 24 hours later, but after sleeping over the night at the heavily-bombarded station,” he told our correspondent.

He continued the gory narrative, “When my vehicle got close to the entrance around 8pm in the day, they stopped selling. “I had to pass the night inside my car, with a lot of fear, before I eventually got fuel the next morning at about 9am, at the cost of N185 per litre.”

Another motorist, Obi Ndukwe, said despite buying the product at N270 per litre, he spent four hours at a filling station along the LASU/Iba Road in Igando, Lagos, to get the product.

Meanwhile, at the major NNPC filling station along Alfred Rewane Avenue in Ikoyi, also in metropolitan Lagos, the long fuel queues were sighted everywhere.

At one location, the queue stretched for over two kilometres as motorists lamented that they had been waiting for over 12 hours before they could get a supply.

Some even said they had to leave their vehicle overnight to return the next day to buy the product at N169 per litre.

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The situation has also caused serious traffic snarls on premium highways such as the Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja; the old toll gate and Alapere axis of the Lagos/Ibadan expressway, as well as service lanes along Ojuelegba/Ikorodu Road, among others.

The cost of the product noticeably rose from N169 per litre in so many filling stations, to as high as N280 per litre in some cases.

An angry motorist, who craved anonymity, barked at the correspondent, “Nigerians are just passive human beings. This scarcity has been on for nearly two months and no real solution has been found to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

“Yet, we have a government in place. It is as if the situation has become a lawless one because there is little or no control from the government. Whereas they claim that they are borrowing so much in the name of subsidy to subsidise fuel.”

Some reports yesterday indicate that, at some concerns, they were dispensing their products for rates as high as N285 per litre

•Vehicle owners task NNPC, others on supply

Reports say it’s the same scenario in parts of the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Many motorists in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) frowned at the current fuel scarcity being experienced in the territory and environs.
Some of them who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja, expressed displeasure over the recurrence of long queues at most fuel stations.

They urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) and other regulatory bodies to aggressively monitor fuelling stations that appear to be hoarding petroleum products.

According to the motorists, such fuelling stations should be sanctioned.
Some fuelling stations in the territory report that most of them were not selling petroleum products while only a few were seen selling.

The long queues had caused heavy gridlocks around the areas where the fuelling stations selling fuel were located.
The development had caused hardship for commuters as transportation was difficult to get.

The motorists also have the perception that some marketers and fuelling stations were hoarding the products.

Some of the fuelling stations dispensing the products include the Conoil and Total fuelling stations opposite the NNPC Towers, and they had long queues.

At Karshi road, only three stations including Forte Oil, Conoil, and Best Albino (Black Market) were selling fuel between N180 and N285, while NNPC Limited Outlet in Karu was selling at N179.

NNPCL Retail station and SALBAS fuelling station close to Gwarimpa-Kado flyover along the Kubwa expressway had fuel but with long queues.

The motorists urged the authorities to revoke the licences of filling stations that have not dispensed products for months.

A motorist, Godfrey Aremosele, decried the current scarcity. They said motorists were suspecting that those stations not selling fuel were lifting products to sell at higher prices in other states and outskirts, thereby causing a shortage in Abuja.

Another motorist, Donald Ugwu, said the situation was not predictable, adding that the suspicion was that marketers were trying to create artificial scarcity to hike the pump price from N180 being sold by some of their members.
According to him, “It has not been easy for us during and after the yuletide as fuel price has been high in some areas and states which contributed to the high transportation fare experienced by travellers.

“In Enugu, I bought fuel last week at N340 per litre. I just bought it today at N280 per litre at Haris filling station Maraba, Nasarawa state.
“The government needs to address issues bordering on fuel crisis,” he said.

Another motorist expressed displeasure at the situation, adding that there were a lot of things being hidden in the oil and gas sector, especially in the subsidy regime.

“It is better to remove the subsidy completely for Nigerians to know the real price of petrol and face it squarely,” he said.

The motorists, however, called on the NNPC Limited and other oil regulatory bodies to swing into action and enforce surveillance to fish out marketers and fuel stations that were hoarding fuel.

As of the time of filing this report, efforts made to get an official reaction on the issue were yet to yield positive results.

•Scarcity bites harder in Akure, others

In Akure, Ondo State, the prevalent state of fuel shortage also persisted. Our correspondent reports that the major roads in Akure, the state capital, were blocked by motorists searching for fuel.

The situation caused serious traffic gridlock on the roads, thereby disrupting the morning rush hour.

The situation became chaotic, especially at filling stations selling between N180 and N260 per litre as buyers struggled to buy fuel.
Many even put their lives at risk by blocking the Akure-Ondo, Akure-Ilesa, and Akure-Benin highways in protest.

Security operatives, including police and members of the Amotekun Corps, had a hectic battle trying to clear the roads for easy access.

Many filling stations in the Ondo State capital have not been dispensing fuel for weeks now, fuelling speculations among members of the public that there would be no end in sight in the lingering fuel crisis.

On Wednesday, a vehicle and one motorcycle queuing for fuel at an NNPC filling station caught fire when the attendants at the jam-packed station were trying to get fuel.

“We saw hell trying to buy fuel. We even had to sleep in our vehicles all through the night, or leave the house early in the morning to queue for fuel,” a commercial taxi driver, Oba Adebayo, and commercial motorcyclist, Joseph Ojo, said.

He expressed sadness that the government could not resolve the fuel problem in November 2022, even as the election approached.

•Lagos orders filling stations on highways to close 4pm

The gruelling situation forced the Lagos State Government, yesterday, to issue an order for all filling stations on the state’s highways to operate between 9am and 4pm each day.

The government predicated its action on the acute gridlock being caused by filling stations dispensing fuel along the highways.

The state Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, in a statement, threatened that filling stations on the highways that failed to heed the order would be sanctioned.

He said, “Given the lingering fuel scarcity across the country, which has continued to affect the free-flow of traffic in Lagos, the state government has initiated a move to regulate activities of major and Independent Petroleum Marketers operating along major roads and traffic-prone areas within the state.

“The move becomes imperative to check indiscriminate activities of motorists queuing up to buy petroleum products who oftentimes, park carelessly on the roads and bridges, therefore impeding the free flow of traffic.”

“Major and Independent Petroleum Marketers whose filling stations are situated on major highways and areas susceptible to traffic will henceforth be allowed to operate only between the hours of 9am to 4pm daily, pending when the fuel shortage crisis subsides.

“The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), Transport Operations Compliance Unit (TOCU), and other Law Enforcement Agencies have been charged to ensure seamless flow of traffic across the state, we admonish all major and Independent Petroleum Marketers to comply with this directive or be sanctioned.”