10 September 2012, Sweetcrude, IBADAN – LONG queues have persisted in fuel stations in Ibadan, Oyo State, as the scarcity of fuel continues to linger with most of the service stations shut.
A check in the city show that the few stations selling the product have jerked up the price from N97 to N105.
Few filling stations selling the product had long queue of vehicles.
At a filling station at Orogun Junction on Iwo Road/Ojo road, customers wishing to buy petrol in jerry cans were disallowed by filling station attendants.
Some residents of the city who spoke to journalists urged the appropriate authority to take urgent action to end the scarcity.
Mr Olawale Adio, a civil servant described the situation as ugly, saying it should not be allowed to continue.
“I don’t think something fundamental has happened to necessitate the scarcity. I presume it is artificial and we appeal to the marketers to stop creating unnecessary tension in the society,” he said.
Mr Olayemi Oluleye, Lagos Zonal Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, attributed the scarcity to low fuel stock at the NNPC depot in Ibadan due to vandalism of its pipeline.
Oluleye said that a pipeline was vandalised recently at Arepo, a town located on the Oyo and Ogun states boundary.
“The pipeline caught fire and it is undergoing repairs. It only affects Ibadan depot,” he said.
