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Fuel Scarcity has loomed in Ibadan as long queues of cars, motorcycles and tricycles surfaced major part of Ibadan and environs petrol station, causing anxiety and hardship for residents trying to get the product.
According to report, most filling stations within the metropolis that dispensed petrol on Wednesday and in the early hours of Thursday were greeted with long queues.
Most of the filling stations closed early on Wednesday, while others were shut as they claimed not to have products to dispense. The development led to the crowding of the filling stations that dispensed the commodity.
It is not yet clear why petrol queues are back in within the city.
Recall Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), South-West Zone had on Wednesday evening threatened to direct its members to increase petrol pump price to N180 per litre.
Alhaji Dele Tajudeen, the zonal association chairman, said members of the association in the South West had been unable to buy petroleum products from any of the government depots, adding that they had resorted to getting supplies from private depot owners, who had capitalised on the situation to exploit them.
Tajudeen, who lamented that all the depots in the zone had refused to load trucks belonging to its members since January 2022, said that the private depot owners’ loading price is between N157 and N158, which is above the price that government depots would sell to the petroleum marketers.
“So, by the time we add the cost of transportation to the purchasing amount, we will be arriving at a sum above N165, which is the government-approved pump dispensing price.
“But sad enough, the regulatory agency appeared incapacitated to control and compel these private depot owners to sell at the government’s approved price for us.
“As of today, the purchasing price of diesel has increased by 400%. Again, I want members of the general public to know that cost of transporting the product ranges between N6 to N8 and N10 depending on where the products are being transported to from the Lagos private depot where we make purchases.
“I wish to equally intimate you that making purchases from these private depot owners is not the ultimate end, we also have some overhead costs to bear like running an electricity generator to power our filling stations; paying the staff salaries, as well as servicing the bank loans among other costs.
“So, by the time we have to add the cost of transportation with the purchasing amount, this situation clearly implied that we as independent marketers will be left with no other option than to dispense the products for nothing lesser than N175 to N180 for customers in the Lagos to Ibadan axis, while those within the Ogbomoso and Ilorin axis may have to buy at a dispensing pump price of N200 per litre,” Tajudeen said.
Newspeak