Mkpoikana Udoma 24 February 2016, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has blamed the recent return of long queues to fuel stations in Port Harcourt, on the efficiency of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, in the zone.
The union said the failure of the agency to monitor activities of fuel station owners, including members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria in Rivers State, is what gave rise to the scarcity in the state.
According to the Port Harcourt Zonal Chairman of NUPENG, Mr. Godwin Eruba, the fuel scarcity is an act of sabotage.
Eruba, who reiterated that the issue of fuel scarcity was becoming a recurring decimal in Rivers State, challenged the South South Zonal Comptroller of the DPR to step up her game.
“I will call it sabotage, there is no reason for the current queues at the filling stations. As we speak, every other state has products apart from Rivers State. Let the relevant regulatory agencies go and do their jobs, to find out those responsible for the hoarding of the products.
“The union is not on strike, we don’t have any intention to go on strike. So, I think we need to actually investigate and find out why it is always a case in Rivers state.
“Nigerians do not have any reason to suffer this scarcity; so let the DPR come out of their comfort zone and do their job,” Eruba said.
The Port Harcourt Zonal NUPENG boss who is in charge of the South South and South East geo-political zones, further stated that he had advised independent petroleum marketers to buy products directly from the NNPC depot so they could sell the products at approved pump price of N86.50 per litre.
“The last fuel scarcity, their complaint was that they don’t but products at the rate which they could sell for N86 per litre, so many of them resorted to buying and selling of products only in the night while some did not buy at all.
“So my advice is that they should buy at NNPC depot where they can get at the rate where they can sell at N86.50 and still make profit,” Eruba stated.
Meanwhile, efforts to reach the zonal operations comptroller of DPR, Mrs. Chioma Njoku to comment on the resurface of long queues and scarcity of fuel in the state have proved abortive.
