Fuel queues have reemerged weeks after the last situation witnessed in the country. TheLink News reports that most filling stations are closed as end users grapple with the rising cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
In most parts of the FCT and Lagos State, motorists and commuters decry logjams over the unexpected scarcity of fuel which has spiralled into an immediate increase in transport fares by commercial bus drivers (i.e. danfos and koropes in Lagos city).
This comes as the 01 August planned nationwide protests regarding economic issues looms.
The fuel queues which started on Friday, 26 July now extend into impossible logs within these metropolises at fuel stations that are still dispensing with some selling at N850 to N950 per litre except the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) which as of Saturday, 27 July sells the product at N650 per litre.
Fuel stations that seemed to have run out of stocks remained closed while some displayed the usual and discomfitting tradition of hoarding while pump attendants sell to their illegal black market cronies for pocket gains.
Has the panic buying ensued, gridlocks were recorded along most road stretches where filling stations were situated and dispensing.
Men of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authorities, LASTMA, seemed overwhelmed as they could not effectively contain the high influx of motorists searching for the product.
As a result, black marketers have taken advantage of the situation. They were selling the product to desperate motorists at exorbitant rates of up to ₦1,000 to ₦1,400 per litre.
