*Call for Patience while problems are addressed
By; ISAAC ODEH, Kaduna
A group under aegis of Coalition for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), had said that it has confirmed the availability of products at Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and called for patience while the National oil company address the problem.
It would be recalled that on Thursday April 26, many filling stations were closed in Abuja and some other states on Wednesday as the scarcity of PMS caused heavy queues at the few outlets that dispensed the product.
But the coalition of the CSOs in its reaction over the development, said it has confirmed availability of products from the NNPCL management,which attributed the development to logistics issues, which have been resolved.
The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations which disclosed this in a press statement made available to journalist in Kaduna said the fact that NNPC gave reasons of logistics problem as the major cause of the queues, should be enough to calm nerves over issue of panic buying.
In the statement signed by Comrade Abdullahi Ibrahim Gimba, the CSOs appealed to motorists to avoid panic buying, because NNPCL as sole importer of petrol had enough products, it commended the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mal Mele Kyari for the swift efforts to address the problem and the measures taken so far to revive the national oil company and resume full production .
It however, described as unfortunate, the situation, where the black marketers capitalised on the glitch to exploit motorists and other residents that jostled to buy at prices ranging between N1000 and N1200 per litre.
While stating that it is unhealthy that this happened when many Nigerians are anticipating a crash in prices of PMS, the Coalition frowned at the idea of increase in cost of the product to an average of N700/litre at stations owned by independent marketers.
The statement further reads: “We read the reaction of NNPCL on fuel scarcity problem via the Press Statement issued by Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC, Olufemi Soneye,who also confirmed that the scarcity was due to issues around logistics that have been resolved.
” We strongly the clarifications made on the tightness in the supply of petrol currently being experienced in some areas across the country shouldn’t stir up tension that will take us back to the days of recurring long queues at filling stations.
” We are not unaware that the queues for petrol grew worse in Abuja and neighbouring Nasarawa and Niger states recently, but the good news according to NNPCL has now been resolved.
” We are ready to draft our Monitoring and evaluation unit to help the federal government to bring sanity to the oil sector.”
