After several years of smooth petrol supply and consumption in Kebbi State, the state is presently experiencing shortage as only few filing stations sell the product.
In Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, many filing stations remained closed as petrol queues suddenly appeared in few filing stations that sell the commodity.
Check at NNPC mega station on Zoro road in Birnin Kebbi, the only filing station selling the commotidity around the area shows that motorists were patiently waiting on a long queue to buy the fuel.
Malam Yusuf Garba, a motorist, said he had been in the queue for several hours before coming close to the filing station’
“I am hopeful very soon I will get the fuel but it had not been easy, I spent a lot of time on the queue.
“I want to use this medium to appeal to government and the authorities concern to come to our aid. Fuel is a necessary commodity that facilitates movement of people from.one place to another,” he said.
Garba observed that with the present fuel scarcity transport fare would soon go up which would in turn affect the prices of other commodities, decrying that the masses were at the receiving end.
Mr Innocent Joel, a businessman, observed that if the situation was not tackled on time the scarcity would definitely escalate and thereby cause difficulty on common people.
He stressed the need for urgent measures to address the problem to safe different businesses from collapse.
Joel noted that many missed their businesses, many rescheduled their appointments and many sacrificed their office work to join queue in search for fuel.
The businessman appealed to government and other relevant authorities to do everything possible to to put an end to the hardship being experienced due to fuel scarcity.
When contacted, the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Kebbi State chapter, Alhaji Muhammad Jega attributed the scarcity to non-availability of the commodity in majority of the depots in Lagos.
Jega said: “Fuel is under government, fuel dealers, distributors and sellers are all under government and nobody is above the law.
“Therefore, fuel shortage is not from us, it is from Lagos where we have about 80 depots but only three are selling the fuel presently.
“In view of this, the few depots that possessed the commodity are now selling it at a price higher than the official price, they sell the fuel at N165 per litre which is our selling price, that’s why some marketers decided not to buy at such price.
“This is what brought about the scarcity but intervention of government will certainly address the situation.”
