Fuel queues are longer in FCT after price increase

Fierce scramble by motorists for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol in Nigeria, resulted in longer queues today at fuel stations across Abuja, the nation’s capital, exactly one day after the Federal Government announced the removal of subsidy on the product and full deregulation of the petroleum liquids market.

Following the introduction of the new price, yesterday long queues have quadrupled at filling stations in Abuja, as abandoned filling stations in satellite towns of the Federal Capital Territory that were closed down for some time, have resumed dispensing the product at the rate of N200 per litre.

Ibe Kachikwu, the minister of state for petroleum, on Wednesday in Abuja announced disclosed an end to expensive fuel subsidies, which have cost the country billions of dollars over the years, often times under very controversial circumstances.

Kachikwu, while announcing the jerking up of pump price of PMS from N86.50 to N145 said the new price was the only way out of the exorbitant price of between N150 and N250 that Nigerians were being subjected to at many filling stations across the country.

Some of the major filling stations in the FCT, particularly that of Conoil directly opposite Kachikwu’s office, the NNPC Towers, were congested by motorists, requiring the intervention of armed policemen, who sealed off a whole driveway and diverted traffic to other roads, to control the crowd.

The situation remained the same along Airport Road and around the Lugbe area of the FCT, as the MRS filling station overlooking Airport Road was filled with vehicles to the brim and lined with a trail of parked vehicles with a long length that disappeared only into the horizon.

Motorists, who spoke with BusinessDay said that they were buying the product at the former benchmark price of N87 per litre and had to do so before the new price regime of N145 per litre would take effect.

A tour round the capital city reveals that a number of filling stations were still not selling even with the commencement of the new regime.

At a filling station located at Mango Tree junction, Dutse Alhaji of Bwari Area Council, customers were seen buying at the rate of N200 per litre today.

In the same vein, another filling station located at Karu, which was long abandoned, suddenly re-opened in the early hours of today and was selling at the rate of N200.

The two filling stations in question do not have any business name written on them.
However, some black marketers were seen having a rosy day as they were buying from Generator tanks and selling down the line to final sellers at the rate of N3,000 for 10 litre keg or N300 per litre.

Further investigations show that at the Forte oil, Oando, A.A.Rano, NNPC super mega filling station on Kubwa road, in spite of the normal prices, long queues persisted.

Interestingly, the cost of transportation also rose astronomically, as commuters said they experienced about 100 percent price hike.

BisinessDay also observed that commercial transport workers have take advantage of the new announcement to effect substantial increase fares, which is already worsening transportation in Abuja and environs.

Fuel stations at the Federal Capital Territory have already adjusted their Pump Price in line with the full deregulation by the downstream sector.

Long queues stretching for over 3km were visible at some filling stations at the Federal Capital Territory. Many Filling stations had put on hold sales pending further directive from their Managers and dealers, as many of them were currently not selling.

For instance in Kubwa Total filing station, a satellite town at the Federal Capital Territory, the Manager Sunny Ogunjobi told BusinessDay that they had put on hold sales of Premium Motor Spirit to monitor the situation of the Price increment by the government and its impact on sales, pending the time they get more trucks of fuel.
In a chat with our reporter, some civil servants were threatening to go on strike if the Federal Government refuses to increase the minimum wage.

One of the civil servants who simply identified herself as Chioma muttered in anger that: “people thought the previous government was wicked, now it is just like we sleep and wake to realise that something else is happening.

“I am waiting to hear what Ayuba (referring to the President, Nigeria Labour Congress NLC), would to do about this, because this is just unfair, they pay peanuts as minimum wage, now rice now sells for N18,000, and now fuel has to increase,” Chioma complained.

“They must just have to increase the minimum wage, or else this new policy will not even work at all. The government has to put all government salary earners, be it commissions, agencies, or ministries in the same line of pay roll”.

“How can I work for the first 6 months without pay, and you can imagine three years after, they are still owing that arrears, and you will see that some working in an agency on the same cadre with you, earns more than you do, it is very bad”, she said.

Aina Adebayo a civil servant expressed his frustration stating that “the situation of this country is becoming unbearable for me, on a normal day I spend N300 on transportation everyday but now it’s going to be N650, all thanks to Buhari”.