The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has debunked claims by Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum concerning the availability of fuel.
The union says that the product is not in the depots and therefore cannot be said to be available.
The workers union therefore advised government to embark on massive importation of petrol into the country to solve the present crisis and eradicate fuel scarcity.
Nojeem Korodo, chairman Lagos Zonal Council of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of NUPENG, who spoke with BusinessDay, said that contrary to what Kachikwu wants the public to believe, most of the depots in Lagos do not have products and those that have, cannot fill more than 40 trucks a day, as against 100 when things are normal.
Korodo said he had been going round the depots since Tuesday and that there are only very few of them that have fuel. “In Apapa, where these depots are, how many are loading? Why are they not loading if there is enough fuel to go round? It is because there is no fuel we are seeing all these queues. If there are, why is the product being rationed?” he queried.
According to him, the major depots, such as Capital Oil and MRS, which NNPC usually uses don’t have. Only Folawiyo is performing skeletal work. Other depots like Aiteo and NIPCO are not performing optimally.”
On the issue of the assurance by the minister that fuel will be available soon, Korodo said, “I am not saying he is telling lies or the truth, but the fact remains that when the products are not available at the depots, they are not just there and there are no two ways about it.”
BusinessDay investigation revealed that the situation has worsened in several parts of the country, with queues stretching a mile long, while the price of the product ranges from N200 t0 N250 per litre.
Tankers moving the product from Apapa ports are parked on roads leading to Apapa, thereby obstructing traffic and worsening the already deplorable state of the roads.
Filling stations around Lagos mainland and the island were shut, while a few had cars parked on the queue, hoping against hope that the situation would improve.
Korodo advised the government to embark on massive importation of petrol into the country to solve the present situation. “For the present supply situation to be sustainable, you must have massive importation.”
Meanwhile, Alex Ogedengbe, former managing director of Kaduna Refinery, has lent his voice to the call that the Federal Government should get out of managing refineries and fuel supply and distribution, by deregulating and liberalising the sector to allow private participation.
“The solution is medium to long-term planning, get refineries back on stream working locally, and the only way to do that is to hand over these refineries to organisations that will run them properly and independent of non-commercial practices.”
“We have examples of success in that area. Eleme Petrochemical was 100 percent owned by the government through NNPC; it ran for 15 years at 25 percent capacity and when it was sold, within one year, it went from 25 percent to 100 percent and it was making profit of N20 billion per annum after tax.
This can happen in each of those refineries within 12 to 18 months, if they are handed over to the private sector to manage.”
Olusola Bello & Isaac Anyaogu
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