The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, as Minister of Petroleum Resources, to find a quick solution to the lingering fuel scarcity.
“The unbearable fuel situation in the country is completely unacceptable. Mr. President must be up and doing,” the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said in a statement.
He added that “When he took office as President of Nigeria and also as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, he was aware that the buck stops at his table.
“Nigerians must not be made to suffer, especially at this time of the year when we have the Yuletide and New Year festivities, which come with a lot of activities.
“This is the same APC government that promised that it would make fuel available and affordable. Today, under their deceitful and corrupt watch, fuel has not only become extremely scarce, the price has also risen from where the PDP left it at N86.50k per litre to as high as N300 per litre and above.
“The effect is that transport fares, running costs, prices of food, medicines and other basic needs have soared beyond the reach of Nigerians, who are now groaning heavily under the hardship of APC misrule.”
Coming with the hike in petrol price is an astronomical rise in transport fares across the country.
Nigerians travelling to their respective home towns for Christmas are lamenting the situation.
Fare from Lokoja to Lagos rose from N4000 to N6500 Friday. A commuter on the route, Solomon Jatto, said: “I have never seen a country like this; the states will not pay salaries and government will not release fuel.”
Audu Yunusa, a driver, said it was the high cost of buying petrol that gave room for the increase in transportation fare.
The NURTW Chairman, North section, Abdullahi Gambo, said that the cost of transportation was being driven by the cost of petrol, adding that the union could not impose fares on their members because they got their fuel from different stations at different prices.
A petroleum marketer in Lokoja, who did not want his name in print, said that ‘the cabals’ were at work again in the petroleum sector.
“The truth is that the cabals are at work again in the petroleum sector. The present administration should keep the cabals at bay in this season.
”The Federal Government should quickly stem this tide. We have had glimpses of President Muhammad Buhari’s fight against corruption. But the present situation is stage managed by corrupt officials at the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR.”
With transport fares rising sharply in Abia State owing to the hike in fuel price to N250 per litre, many commuters were yesterday forced to walk long distances.
The NNPC had promised on Thursday that the fuel scarcity would disappear this weekend.
Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC spokesman, said in Abuja that there was an increase in the number of incoming trucks of petrol into the FCT to curb the queues in the city.
According to him, the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr Maikanti Baru, had met with the heads of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and Petrol Tanker Drivers (PTD) to nip the problem in the bud.
He said that the nation, which was consuming 35 million litres suddenly increased consumption to 85 million litres as a result of diversion of fuel to neighbouring countries.
“He met with NARTO and PTD and they assured that trucks would be closely monitored.
“He said Lagos should be maintained at 300 trucks but the actual figure coming into Abuja should be increased by 150.
“Port Harcourt refinery has also increased refining and so by tomorrow (Friday) queues should normalise and by weekend it would have disappeared,’’ Ughamadu said.
He said the scarcity was artificial as the corporation “as at today has adequate products and a 25-day sufficiency.”