Anxiety as petrol queues resurface in Abuja over price-hike speculations

Queues for petrol have resurfaced in the federal capital territory (FCT) — months after normalcy returned to the area.

In February, there had been queues for petrol in the FCT as a result of scarcity caused by the refusal of marketers to load the product from the depots over an “ambiguous” price template.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had said there would be no increase in the ex-depot price of petrol until the end of negotiations with organised labour.

On Monday, the corporation also said it will not increase the price of petrol in May.

However, speculations of a price hike and scarcity have caused long queues to appear in petrol stations in the nation’s capital.

According to NAN, long queues returned to retail outlets in Wuse, Gwarimpa, Wuye and Kubwa expressway on Tuesday while other outlets were not selling the product.

Halima Umar, a private car owner, said she does not know the reason for the queue, adding that government should put measures in place to bring sanity to the oil sector.

“They encourage black market and most times their fuel is bad. We don’t need to always face this problem in buying petrol every month, we need a permanent solution,” she said.

Emmanuel Offor, a taxi driver, said he arrived the petrol station since 8 am and has yet to buy petrol as of 10:30 am.

“This is my source of livelihood; my family depends on this daily and this fuel problem will slow my productivity and lower my return for the day,” he said.

“I am scared of buying black market because last month I did, they sold bad fuel for me and it spoilt my fuel pump and I spent more in fixing it.”

A manager at one of the filling stations said there was enough fuel on the ground, but that people are just panic buying.

Editor’s note: The photo in this report is only for illustration.