By Kamil Opeyemi and Halimah Olamide
A fuel depot located right inside a cashew farm in Gwarinpa, Federal Capital Territory provides last alternative to residents of Kubwa, Gwarinpa, Life Camp, and some adjoining areas.
But this depot, which carries no name has been in existence for, according to NPO Reports findings, about 8 years. It only however comes to life when Nigerians are sleeping at regular fuel stations to purchase petroleum products.
When NPO Reports visited recently in the think of the unending fuel scarcity, the depot was fairly full of those in desperate need of petrol.
As at January 29, a litre of petrol at the seemingly illegal filling station was sold for N390.
“But what choice do we have,” said a buyer who volunteered to speak with the NPO Reports on condition his name would not be mentioned.
He told the NPO Reports that fuel depot has been his only last option in the last two years since he got wind of it anytime there is a scarcity of the product.
How does the depot get its supplies? One of the attendants, Auwalu Musa, said only the owner of the depot (whose name he declined to give) could provide detailed information.
Those who don’t approach depots such as this are left with the options of either queuing up at fillings stations for hours or in some cases, days to get their tanks filled or patronise the hundreds of street urchins who have become emergency fuel hawkers in Abuja.
A drive around the city especially along major routes like Muritala Mohammed Way towards Kubwa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kado-Galadima Way would show hundreds of fuel-hawking boys mostly in their teens. Car owners, frustrated and fearing they might get stuck along in their journeys, are forced to park along the routes to refuel.
With such boys, a 5-litre keg is sold for about N2500 or more depending on the capacity of the buyer to negotiate.
Interestingly, many of the urchins operate proximate to filling stations where hundreds of cars are on queue for hours.
You then wonder how easy it is for them to get their stocks, dispose off quickly and get another while the real car owners are left in the lurch?
Idris, a boy looking like in his 15, in an informal chat with the NPO Reports, said he is an agent for one of the officials of one of the fillings stations along the Kubwa Highway.
In other words, a filling station attendant ensures Idris gets the supplies which he sells at exorbitant prices to desperate users while those on queues are frustrated spending long hours.
The last two weeks, have, rather than witness an abatement of the crisis, seen more dangerous slide into the abyss with the fuel stations becoming more chaotic than ever.
Last week, one of the presidential candidates, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress, hit the nail on its head by saying that the unending fuel scarcity was contrived to ensure that Nigerians reject the APC at the poll.
His outbursts brought further to the fore, the sufferings and frustrations Nigerians are going through with the worsening fuel crisis in the country.
The situation in majority of the Nigerian cities are pathetic. Apart from the hours spent at the fuel stations, there is an increased cases of traffic congestion occasioned by the long queues at the stations.
On Wednesday, motorists went through hell on the popular Oba Akran Road, Ikeja with long queues that had spilled over to the road from the Mobil Filling station located at the Guinness Roundabouts. A visit to the filling station showed that while fuel was being sold at N185 per litre, those desperate to get the product because of the price had spent more than two days.
“My van has been on this queue since Sunday evening when we were told they would start selling on Monday,” said Mr. Mathew Oladiti who claims to do mini-haulage business with his Mitsubishi Van.
“So, this is my third day. When I joined the queue, my vehicle was at the Vital Foam building, more than half a kilometre to the filling station. At some point, they said they were no longer selling. So, I left my van there because there was even no fuel to drive it home again,” said Oladiti
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What seems to have compounded the situation is that many desperate residents who fail to join the orderly queues jump lines only to end up at the entrance into the filling station creating more bottlenecks for other road users. Apart from what the NPO Reports observed at the Mobil station, this has been the trend in many of the filling stations.
This was observed on the Awolowo Way, Ikeja, where another outlet of the Mobil Filling Station is located.
From the Ikeja-Allen Roundabouts, the congestion continued up to opposite the filling station with many other road users stuck.
Mele Kyari, who is the boss of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, said on an NTA live programme on Thursday that the company has done its bit by ensuring that there is enough product for sale in the country.
Kyari said all other happenings along the value chain cannot be blamed on the NNPCL which became a limited liability company last year.
Those who read political undertones to the problem are saying that this may persist until after the general elections. With less than a month to the commencement of the general elections, the prognosis are beginning to gel with the happenings.
Getting more complicated, Nigerians daily struggle at filling stations with physical fights. There is an entire feeling of frustrations in the people. And as one of those at an NNPCL outlet in Omole, Lagos, Mr. Sakiru Adedigba said, “We are where we are. We die here!’ n