Fuel Scarcity: Ondo residence groans, long queues back in Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Kwara petrol stations

Panic gripped residence of Ondo State as some Oil Marketers have increased their fuel prices following fuel scarcity that loomed in the state.

Apart from Akure, the state capital some Oil marketers in communities like, Owo, Ikare and among others have increased their fuel price to N110.

Though, Akure dwellers had been experiencing long queues in the few petrol stations that opened for commercial activities, while others have been under lock and key.

Not only Ondo State, there were long queues in most petrol stations that had supplies in Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Kwara states.

It was gathered that the new development might not be unconnected to lack of supply from private depots in Lagos while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) could not afford to give them enough to supplement their supplies.

According to the chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN) Oyo/Osun branch, Bashorun Oyewole Akanni, “most marketers have paid in drafts to private depots in Lagos for the past three or four weeks yet, they could not get any supply except for the little they got from the NNPC depots across the country which is not sufficient. Rather, it is used as supplement of what they get from private depots.”

Investigations by “Daily Post” further revealed that the private depots could not import fuel for some time now.

The Ibadan NNPC depot, which is supposed to be dispensing about five million litres per day to major and independent marketers, could only dispense two million litres which is shared among Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi states and Abuja.

Though some major marketers are still selling to customers, independent marketers have shut down their filling stations.

As at noon yesterday, all filling stations in Osogbo had shut their gates while queues were noticed in Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso Ilorin and other major towns in the affected states.