The long fuel scarcity may soon abate going by plans announced by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to embark on massive importation of products which should guarantee availability of petrol across the country.
This is aimed at ensuring the lingering scarcity ends this week as promised by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu.
Speaking to journalist in Lagos on Tuesday, the Executive Director, Supply and Distribution, Nigeria Product and Marketing Company, Mr Justin Ezeala, said that normalcy should return following increased efforts in areas of monitoring, enforcement and product supply.
“I am happy to announce that as at today we have received seven cargoes of PMS. We are apparently ahead of schedule in terms of our importation and what we do is that as these cargoes come in we send to Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar.
“Of course most of it is kept in Lagos to distribute to major cities,” he said.
He also said that distribution pipelines which had been down had resumed operation and subsequently a cargo of product would be arriving the country every day.
He added that the NNPC would not sell product to any marketer above the official price and the DPR had been mandated to intensity monitoring to ensure that consumers are not ripped off by marketers.
“If a marketer does that (sell above official price) the marketer is not only taking us for a ride but also taking the whole country for a ride. So, name and shame them and we will be willing to take action,” he concluded.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, had to shelve his scheduled interaction with the media to attend a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday.
The Nigerian President has reportedly summoned Kachikwu for a brief on the supply of products across the country in a bid to address the lingering fuel scarcity.
Nigerians are hoping that the new efforts yield result as they continue to grapple with fuel scarcity across the country.
There are still long queues, high prices, and black marketers are taking advantage of the situation.
.Source: Channelstv