FUEL scarcity is gradually eas­ing off as Queues reduce.

FUEL scarcity is gradually eas­ing off in Abuja and parts of the Lagos Metropolis as several filling stations at the weekend were dispensing the product, an indication that normalcy would be completely restored by midweek.
It is, however, pains and complaints in other parts of the country as the product is still not available, or are being sold far above the approved price.

In Lagos, a marketer at Forte Oil, Mr. Kunle Mapaderun, said it would take another seven days before the situation eases off. This, he said was as a result of logistics problems associated with loading at the depots.
Most of the filling station visited yesterday had products. Motorists confirmed that they bought petrol at the official pump price of N86 and N86.50 respectively.
Meanwhile, Setonji David, the lawmaker representing Badagry II constituency at the Lagos State House of Assem­bly has identified smuggling of the product as the major factor frustrating efforts of the Federal Government to end the crisis.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end the diversion of petrol to neigh­bouring countries, particularly Benin Republic, through the Seme border in Lagos. He said residents of Badagry have noticed daily movement of tankers fully loaded with petrol into the Republic of Benin.
“Those of us in Badagry axis have noticed an excruciating and unpalatable trend that is aggravating the hardship and causing further pain for our people,” he said.
“Since the commencement of the current scarcity, fuel tankers fully loaded with PMS are be­ing ferried to the neighbouring country, precisely Republic of Benin.
“A minimum of 50 tankers are being driven out of the country to Benin through Seme border in Badagry while our people are suffering untold hardship.
“A few fuel stations that sell in Badagry presently sell between N200 and N250 per litre.”
David, who chairs the house committee on physical plan­ning and urban development, stressed that the government must stop the diversion to re­duce the suffering of Nigerians.
He urged the government to compel the department of petroleum resources (DPR), security agencies and the Nigeria customs service to end the practice.
In other parts of Lagos, some marketers who had hoarded fuel are counting their losses as the price had crashed with majority of them selling as low as N90 per litre compared to the N180 and above they sold as at last Friday.
The same scenario played out among black marketers opera­tors, especially those operating along the Airport Road corridor as 30 litres dropped to N3000 as against the official pump price of N2,595, leaving them with a profit margin of N305.
Prior to yesterday, 30 litres of petrol sold for N10,000 at the black market.
A fresh consignment of 37,500 metric tones (MT) arrived yesterday, a develop­ment that may help improve the supply situation. Daily Sun investigation, revealed that MRS, Oando and Conoil would share 25,000 MT which arrived aboad a vessel, Admoard E Leader, while Forte Oil and Mobil got 7,500 MT and 5,000 MT respectively.
However, a source at the Apapa depot told Daily Sun that each tanker containing 33,000 litres pay security agents about N300,000 to fa­cilitate their loading process.
‘‘You know Apapa area and Ibafon are rowdy and a tanker who has got a docket to load may be far from the loading bay. So they need the assistance of security officials to fast-track the movement of their tankers to the depots. Eventually, this extra cost is passed on to the consumers,’’ the source said.
While residents of Lagos are driving leisurely into petrol stations and driving out with smiles and full tanks, in Osun State, commuters are still groaning as the scarcity bites harder, despite the promise by Minister of State for Petro­leum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Ibe Kachikwu, that fuel scarcity would end across the country by April 7.
A tour of Osogbo and other major towns showed that sev­eral petrol stations were still shut as a result of lack of sup­ply. Several vehicles including commercial and private have been forced off the roads due to the situation.
At Mobil Station at Okefia area of Osogbo, an attendant, Mr. Araoye Aviodun, lamented that the station had not got any supply for three weeks. According to him, fuel sellers and consumers keep vigil in anticipation to get supply, but to no avail.
Other few stations that had sold at N220 per litre.
At NNPC mega station along Gbongan/Ibadan Road in Ogo-Oluwa area of Osogbo, the state capital, there was scramble yesterday as it was the only station selling within the metropolis.
Security agencies, particu­larly the Nigeria Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were on ground to monitor sales.
An officer of the NSCDC, Oyetunji Temitope, told Daily Sun that the agencies’ decision to monitor sales was to control crowd, forestall violence, checkmate selling in kegs or jerry cans and guide against black market.
The scarcity has, however, forced a hike in transport fares as operators of commercial ve­hicles known as Korope, Okada and kabukabu have increased their fares.
As Nigerians groan under acute fuel supply, the poor state of electricity supply has become another challenge.
In Abuja, electricity consumers have blamed the situation on the Abuja Elec­tricity Distribution Company (AEDC) for their woes.
As the situation get worse within the city and environs, management of Abuja Elec­tricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has disclosed that epileptic power supply was as a result of the reduction in the energy allocated to it by the System Operator in recent times, following the recent huge drop in national generation.
The affected states com­prises the Federal Capital Ter­ritory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger.
AEDC has said in a state­ment at the weekend by Ahmed Shekarau, head, public relations and media explained that all concerned players in the Nigeria electricity sup­ply industry, including the generation and transmission companies were already work­ing on the system with a view to restoring normal supply as quickly as possible.
But some consumers who spoke with Daily Sun regret­ted why they have to pay higher for electricity they are not supplied.
“Mr Olachir Gonky who operates a hotel in Kubwa la­mented that he has been oper­ating his business on generator in the past two weeks because there is no electricity.
“In my are, we have elec­tricity for less than three hours in a whole day and I can’t keep my customers in dark­ness,” he lamented.
The poor power supply has almost grounded business activities in the city as many people who relied on their generators have since parked them since there is no even fuel.
However, while assuring that it will always distribute the load allocated to it by the System Operator as it is impossible to store electric­ity, Shekarau said the AEDC management appealed for the understanding of its custom­ers.