Alhaji Lawal Isiaka, Special Assistant to the Governor on Petroleum Monitoring, said that there was no reason for panic buying.
“The vandalised pipeline on Ogbomoso road which supplies petroleum products to Ilorin had been repaired.
“So these marketers in Ilorin that closed their stations to create artificial scarcity because of bridging of fuel at Oke-Oyi depot will be disappointed.
“l want to use this medium to warn fuel marketers who sell the product above the official pump price to desist forth-with as anybody caught will face the wrath of the law,’’ he said. The reports shows that residents had besieged the few stations where the product was being sold.
At Omu Aran, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government Area, no filling station was selling to consumers as at 3pm on Sunday. The investigations revealed that most independent operators closed shop in Ilorin, the state capital, while there were long queues at the NNPC stations and outlets of major marketers like Mobil and Total.
When contacted, the state Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Mr Bashir Olopade, attributed the situation to inadequate supply of the product to their members. “Can you believe that over 300 of our members in this state were being supplied with two trucks only on daily basis? “There is scarcity because we, the independent marketers, are not loading as expected; the loading is now a camouflage. “ What we do now is to go for bridging by approaching independent depots in Lagos,’’ he said.
The state Controller of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Amos Jokodola, said that he was on leave and could not make any official comment on the situation until his resumption next month. In Iseyin, Oyo State, long queues re-surfaced in many filling stations following the scarcity of petrol. NAN reports that most filling stations in the area had closed shop while the few selling had long queues.
A NAN correspondent, who monitored the situation, reports that filling stations owned by independent marketers at Koso, Bolamarck, Barracks and Oja-Agbe areas had long queues. NAN also reports that only five out of the 25 stations in the area were selling petrol. Some motorists, who spoke with NAN, said they had parked their vehicles in different stations since Sunday night to enable them buy fuel.
“I parked here around 8 p.m on Sunday because they stopped selling when it was becoming too rowdy for them to control. “So far, they have been selling and hopefully it will get to my turn soon, we just hope the Federal Government will intervene as soon as possible,’’ he said. Another motorist expressed displeasure with filling station owners, accusing them of hoarding the commodity.
“I don’t know why people are this wicked in this country; just because they heard that fuel is scarce in Ibadan, they started hoarding it; it’s not fair at all. “These are the people that will be selling it a very high cost to transporters, this trend must be checked,’’ he said. NAN also reports that the scarcity had led to an increase in transport fares in the metropolis.
Efforts to speak with officials at the filling stations did not yield result as they all declined comment. Some, however, said that only their headquarters could speak on the situation. (NAN)
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