Commuters in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, were stranded as fuel scarcity re-emerged in the city weeks after it experienced long queues and hike in transport fares due to fuel shortage.
Residents spent hours waiting for automobiles on major routes leading to Abuja’s city center, according to sources.
In the midst of burning issues in their ministries, Sylva and Ngige Buhari’s men entered the presidential election.
They expressed dissatisfaction with their inability to arrive to work on time.
Andrew Ogbemudia, a resident of Maraba, a suburb of Abuja, said: “We’ve to stay at the bus stop for hours to get a vehicle.”
Another resident, who simply gave his name as Samson, at the Jabi Park, said he had been standing on the road close to 30 minutes waiting for a taxi that would convey him to Wuse Zone 4.
A civil servant, Rosemary Okeke, lamented: “When I came to the bus stop, I found so many people, it was really hectic; I just hope that the government will do something about the situation.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has blamed insufficient loading of the product from depots for the present petrol scarcity in areas of the country. In Abuja, Kano, and Lagos, the majority of stations have remained closed.
A statement on Sunday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department of NNPC, Garba Deen Muhammad, said: “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.
“Another contributing factor to the sudden appearances of queues is the increased fuel purchases which is also usual with returning residents of the FCT from the public holidays”.
The NNPC said it had taken steps along with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and marketers to ramp up loadouts from all depots.
“We assure all residents of the FCT, and indeed all Nigerians, that we’ve ample local supplies and national stock in excess of 2.5bn litres, with sufficiency of more than 43 days.”
As a result of the recent scarcity, many highways within the city were closed as cars sought to collect the product from the few available filling stations, and vehicular traffic stretched for several kilometers.
Following more than three months of grueling petrol scarcity across the country, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) blamed on off-spec fuel at the time, it arrived after a few weeks of reprieve.