Fashola: How we are easing the problem of moving fuel during festive period

Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says his ministry is working towards ensuring the smooth movement of fuel across the country during the festive period.

The minister said this in Abuja on Monday during a stakeholders’ meeting chaired by Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president.

He said the ministry has instructed contractors to make alternative routes for easy movement of trucks.

“The ministry of works and housing has a supporting role to play here, while construction work is going on on some of the routes used for moving cargo, we have met with our contractors and directed them to provide some palliative measures to ease the movement of trucks and tankers,” Fashola said.

“Some of these routes include Benin-Auchi-Okene, Warri-Sapele-Benin, Ilorin-Jaba road, Calabar-Itu road and other roads.

“This is essentially to say we are giving everybody the support we can to ease the problem of moving fuel during the period.”

Also speaking, Mele Kyari, group managing director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the corporation has enough petroleum product supply for the period.

He assured Nigerians that the corporation is ready to make the products available even beyond the festive season.

“We are here today to take stock of our readiness for the festive period, particularly in terms of supplies and distribution of petroleum products across the country, so that this festive period will be enjoyed by Nigerians without any hitch, particularly the Christmas and new year,” he said.

“We are very sure today that we have very robust supply plan not just for Christmas but beyond. We are assuring Nigerians that the NNPC has made adequate arrangement to make adequate supply of petroleum products. If there are any issue, we have come together with other agencies of government to ensure those issues are resolved to ensure Nigerians have a very Merry Christmas this year.”

Mohammed Adamu, inspector general of police (IGP), said the force will heighten the level of security within the period.