Indications emerged Saturday that fuel queues have resurfaced in petrol stations across Abuja, the nation’s capital city, with many motorists scrambling to get petroleum products.

The recent development is coming days after Nigeria’s presidential and National Assembly elections.

Last Saturday, Nigerians elected a new leader to assume the office of the president on 29 May.

Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was declared the winner of the presidential election.

In recent months, Nigerian motorists and household users have had a tough time getting petroleum products at filling stations across the country.

The scarcity persisted despite the government’s repeated claims it had enough petroleum products in stock.
But amid complaints from many Nigerians, the fuel supply situation improved in Abuja and some major Nigerian cities.

However, a PREMIUM TIMES correspondent who visited petrol stations around the metropolis Saturday evening found that queues have yet again resurfaced in the city.
Queues
Across the nation’s capital city, some filling stations were shut to buyers while others along Lugbe airport road, Wuse and Gwagwalada were besieged by end-users queuing to buy petrol.

The same trend was witnessed around Kubwa Road, Wuye, Bwari, Jabi and Utako areas of the city.

At one of the NNPC outlets in the Central Business District along Wuse Road, there was a huge crowd Saturday evening as motorists struggled to buy the product.

READ ALSO: Petrol Queues: No need for panic buying — NNPC
A car owner, Kelvin Ode, told PREMIUM TIMES that the return of fuel queues in Abuja was likely as a result of the just concluded election.

“I don’t know if you noticed that there were no petroleum queues during the election period and I’m not sure this particular queue is a serious one, I just think this is because of the just-concluded election. But people are already panic buying,” Mr Ode said.

A long queue was also seen at the Mobil filling station in Utako.

“I’m surprised at this recent queue. I just hope we are not going into the era of scarcity again,” Ogunmoroti Adiza, a taxi driver who was at the station, said.

NNPC speaks on scarcity
The NNPCL on Saturday reassured Nigerians of the robust supply of petrol in the country and advised against panic-buying.

The oil firm said this in a statement by its Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Garba Deen Muhammad.

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The NNPCL explained that its latest updates released on Saturday showed a total of 2.1 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) stock, representing 0.9 billion litres in all the land depots nationwide and 1.2 billion litres on marine vessels, which is equivalent to 35 days sufficiency as of 4th March 2023.

“We plan to close the month of March 2023 with about 2.8 billion litres, which is equivalent to 47 days of sufficiency,” it said.

It noted that the appearance of pockets of queues in Abuja and some parts of the country, is largely due to restrictions in businesses and movement, to allow for the conduct of the Presidential and NASS elections and enable Nigerians to exercise their civic right.

The NNPCL said operations have now resumed at the depots and trucks are being dispatched to various parts of the country.

“We expect normalcy to be restored in the next few days.

“NNPC Ltd and all its partners and stakeholders will continue to work together to ensure seamless distribution of petroleum products around the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.

“We, therefore, enjoin Nigerians not to engage in panic buying,” it said.

God will help us

Awon ara lamentation, your case is not new