The prompt action taken by Capital Oil’s Dr. Ifeanyi Uba yesterday, directing that petroleum products should begin to be lifted from his facility and the intervention of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream led by Senator Magnus Abe, have combined to force oil markers in the country to call of their strike which literally shut down the country.
The strike action literally ground the country to a halt as petroleum products became scarce and were being sold at cut-throat prices. The marketers have, however, pledged to make fuel available nationwide within hours of the strike being called off.
Uba’s unilateral action broke the ranks of oil marketers and depot operators, who had been protesting non payment of outstanding subsidy claims of over N200 billion by the Federal Government as his facilities began releasing millions of litres of premium motor spirit otherwise called petrol on Sunday.
The intervention of the Abe Senate committee to broker a truce between the Federal Government and the Marketers also led to an agreement pledging to pay the outstanding claims of the marketers. The agreement was signed on behalf of the Government by the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The license of marketers who refuse to lift products within hours of the agreement, it was also agreed, should be revoked.
Nigerians had been groaning from the harrowing effects of the strike. In Abuja in particular, public power supply have been switched off since last Thursday with no end in sight. Similarly, virtually all the petrol filling stations had run out of supplies since Friday, with virtually little or no traffic along the ever congested roads in the city.
Earlier on Monday, banks had sent out short messages (sms) to their customers informing them they would close business by 1.00 pm because they had no fuel supplies to power their generating sets, which have become the major power supply in banks, other businesses and public places.
NNPC mega stations scattered around major state capitals, which had been offering retail supplies of fuel and diesel to the public, had also run out of supplies, leading to total shut down of most businesses.
Major streets and highways which in the past three weeks were always blocked by motorists struggling to obtain fuel supplies from filling stations, had been cleared of traffic as the few vehicles still plying the roads had no encumberances.
Apart from Abuja, the energy and power situation was not different in adjourning Nasarawa, Niger, Minna and Kaduna states. In all these places, some young men hawk adulterated fuel in 10 litter jerry cans for between N2,800.00 and N3,500.00 because the filling stations had closed shop.
One Yakubu, who claimed to be the chairman of petroleum hawkers in Paiko, Niger state, informed our reporters that “Oga, don’t blame us. It is true some of us adulterate their fuel but we have set up a task force against that. We sell at this price because we buy only in the night at N250 per liter. So, the little fee we put is to make little gain”.
Another account was given by one Mohammed Adoi who claimed to be the chairman of hawkers at New Nyanya. He stated that “we go as far as Keffi to buy fuel in the night and when we bring it here, he top up the price to get little money to ‘chop’ and make ends meet. Mind you, we don’t buy the product at normal price”.
