Petrol supply drops, black marketers surface in Abuja

  Black marketers of petrol surfaced in parts of the Federal Capital Territory on Monday and dispensed the commodity in jerrycans to inte...

 

Black marketers of petrol surfaced in parts of the Federal Capital Territory on Monday and dispensed the commodity in jerrycans to interested motorists and other consumers.

Although some filling stations dispensed the commodity at the time of filing this report in the morning, it was reliably gathered that there had been supply hiccups since Saturday, making many retailers halt petrol sales.

Some black marketers of petrol were spotted in front of the Total filling station opposite the headquarters of the Nigerian Police Force in Abuja city centre on Monday.

They sold their products in 10-litre jerrycans at a price between N2,000 and N2,500 to motorists who could not stay in queues at filling stations.

Some of these black marketers were also seen along the Kubwa-Zuba Expressway around Nipco filling station at the Kubwa end of the road.

A senior official of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria told our correspondent that the partial scarcity in Abuja could be due to product hoarding by tank farm owners, as some of the tank farms recently increased their prices.

“Petrol scarcity is likely going to happen because there is supply drop and some of the private tank farms have increased their prices from what we used to buy it before. We don’t know what the cause is,” the official who spoke on condition of anonymity stated.

The source added, “And if it continues like that, there will be problem. Most of these tank farm sellers of petrol always feel sceptical about pushing out products towards the end of the month.

“Also, you know we are approaching the festive period of Christmas. So is like there is product hoarding on their part.”

Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation denied any increase in petrol price, as they insisted that there had been no official communication on the issue.

NNPC has been the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria for more than four years running due to the inability of other marketers to access foreign exchange to make purchases.

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