Fuel queues are back on the streets of Lagos, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd announcing over the weekend that the low supply of the commodity was due to “a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels”.

Black marketers have subsequently taken advantage of the situation to make quick bucks, as discovered during EQ’s visit to various filling stations on Monday.

Most of the people who spoke to EQ said that fuel stations were reluctant to sell PMS to those buying in plastic containers, instead preferring to sell to car owners.

At Total Energies around Sheraton, a man who identified himself as Peter Oche told EQ he planned to buy fuel in large quantities for his company’s cars in preemption of a bigger scarcity.

‘GOVERNMENT SHOULD HELP US’

Ibrahim Sikiru

Ibrahim Sikiru, a commuter in the common yellow Danfo, told EQ he had been queuing at Northwest filling station at Maryland for over two hours. He also told us that queuing for such long hours meant that he had forgone two trips from the Maryland-Ajegunle axis he plied, which would have fetched him up to N15,000.

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“Most of us are not able to work now, being in this queue,” Sikiru lamented.

“We have lost so much while in this queue. When we get out too, the agberos will collect their own, LASTMA will collect their own, task force too will collect. The government should help us.”

Francis Chidiebere, a tricycle driver queuing at AP fuel station, Onipanu, had similar complaints. He told EQ that his stay at the fuel station had made him lose up to N5,000 daily due to the three hours he wasted every day he queued to get fuel.

‘MY CUSTOMERS WILL PAY FOR IT’

Daniel Kusa

Daniel Kusa, who had been waiting in his car for close to two hours, told EQ that scarcities like this contribute to inflation.

“The stress I have to face is tough and the price of fuel too, so, if someone patronises my fashion house, I would have to increase the amount I charge,” Kusa explained. “My customers will have to pay more.”

An attendant at Total Energies told EQ that selling fuel to those with gallons would be unfair to cars who had been in the queue for hours.

Biola Azeez, who had to leave NNPC fuel station at Maryland, believed that the refusal of fuel attendants to sell to buyers carrying gallons was because the stations preferred to sell to black market merchants.

BLACK MARKETERS ON THE RISE

A black market seller by the roadside

EQ also noticed the presence of black market sellers around most of the filling stations it visited.

Many of them were men in their middle ages, with the exception of a boy, and were seen moving from one side of the road to another in their bid to attract the queueing cars to purchase from them.

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All of them held their kegs on both hands with short rubber hoses, ready to dispense for interested buyers.

A black marketer trying to sell to cars in a queue

While fuel stations like AP at Onipanu had little to sell to the queuing crowd, MRS fuel station was shut down with no fuel to sell to desperate buyers.

Sakiru offloading his two kegs of fuel into another commuter’s bus

While some of the fuel stations still sold at N620 per litre, others took advantage of the situation to hike their pump prices to as high as N800 per litre, which was enough to make Sakiru Tiamiyu, another commuter, abandon all fuel stations in Ikorodu to buy for N620 at Onipanu.
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