Emerging report gathered on Monday shows that Long queues of vehicles seeking to buy Pemium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, has emerged again at filling stations at the Federal Capital city of Abuja.
Petroleum marketers have attributed the emerging petrol queues in Abuja to failure of federal government to refund 12 months products bridging claims to them.
It was gathered that government has not paid marketers bridging claims in the last 12 months and the debt has risen to about N100 billion.
Speaking on the return of fuel queue, the National president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association on Nigeria, IPMAN, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, said that the queues being experienced curently is because many marketers are unable to buy products due to the huge debt.
“We are still loading but some marketers have shut down operations because they are highly indebted to the banks and cannot sustain operations. Only few are just operating and cannot satisfy current demand.” Okonkwo explained.
Okoronkwo noted that an emergency meeting of marketers is scheduled for today Monday, to discuss the huge debt trapped at the Petroleum Equalization Fund. The outcome he said will determine marketers’ next line of action.
Recall, that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, had earlier on Monday, claimed that low loadouts are one of the reasons behind the recent return of long queues in fillings stations in Abuja.
This is according to a series of tweets on the NNPC handle late Sunday.
“The NNPC Ltd notes the sudden appearance of fuel queues in parts of Abuja. This is very likely due to low loadouts at depots which usually happen during long public holidays, in this case, the Sallah celebrations,” the agency said.
It explained that another reason for the development is the “increased fuel purchases which are also usual with returning residents of the FCT from the public holidays”.
But it called on Nigerians and residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) particularly not to panic over the development.
“We assure all residents of the FCT, and indeed all Nigerians, that we have ample local supplies and national stock in excess of 2.5 billion liters, with a sufficiency of more than 43 days,” it added.
“The NNPC Ltd hereby advises motorists not to engage in panic buying as supplies are adequate as will become increasingly evident in the coming days.”
First published in Page 36 News