FUEL SCARCITY SPREADS TO AKWA IBOM, LAGOS AND OGUN STATE

The scarcity of  fuel that started in some parts of the country last week has over the weekend spread to Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Ogun State. Vehicles and motorists formed long queues at the few filling stations with fuel.

In Lagos, motorists were seen queuing to buy fuel at  Ogba, Ikeja, Berger, Ikotun, Akute among other placs withing the metropolis. The same goes for Akwa Ibom, as long queues could be seen at  filling stations at Uyo and other parts of the state where fuel was being sold for as high as N150/litre while some filling stations were shut to customers.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation blamed the shortage on the continued closure of a vandalised NNPC System 2B pipeline at Arepo, Ogun State  On Sunday, the NNPC spokesman, Mr. Fidel Pepple, said the closure of the Arepo line was a major setback for the corporation. He said, “The solution to the problem lies in us putting the line on stream. And now, we are unlikely to resolve that as soon as possible because security must be guaranteed at Arepo before repair works could be completed. “We have product, but we can’t continue to pump through the bad line and have product wasted.”

Repair works at the vandalised pipeline were stopped last week after suspected vandals killed three NNPC engineers at the site. It however seems that the shortage might grow worse in the course of the week.