The Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP) says current fuel scarcity in the FCT is caused by flooding at Koton Karfe in Kogi.
Koton Karfe is a community between the FCT and Lokoja where floods had been wreaking havoc lately.
The floods in the area have submerged a greater part of Koton Karfe and Lokoja and have also grounded vehicular movement.
ADITOP also attributed the scarcity to the fact that alternative roads to get to the FCT are damaged and ridden with potholes making it difficult to get to the federal capital.
The association said the situation was frustrating and urged the Ministry of Works and Housing and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to fix a glaring solution.
President of ADITOP, Alhaji Lawan Dan-Zaki, said in Abuja on Saturday that the solution was to hasten the reconstruction of the damaged Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida Road in Niger that serves as alternative route.
He said the failed roads, which posed difficulties for truck drivers to ply, would have served as alternative routes for use by petroleum products transporters.
“A lot of our trucks are loaded with petroleum products but cannot go through the flood area freely, while the empty ones cannot return to load products.
“We have two big rivers in Nigeria – River Niger which links Northwest and Southwest Nigeria and River Benue, which affects Lokoja and Eastern parts of the country.
“The bad roads are a challenge to the Federal Ministry of Works, so we appeal to the Federal Government to hasten work on alternative roads.
“This is imperative because our truck drivers spend 10 days while going through the damaged Lapai-Agai-Bida Road and another 10 days while returning to depots,’’ he said.
Dan-Zaki also lamented the frustration faced by truck drivers hauling petroleum products across the country.
“Lapai-Agai-Bida Road linking southern part of the country to take products from Lagos is completely damaged.
“Lokoja Road which we have been managing to transport products from the eastern parts is submerged by flood.
“It is also difficult to take the eastern road carrying products from Calabar-Oghara-Port Harcourt-Warri because the road is bad and truck drivers spend more than a week in trucks queues,’’ he said.
Dan-Zaki said truck drivers usually avoided Mokwa Road through Kaduna because of insecurity, adding that drivers were being kidnapped on that route.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government to ensure that the ministry and FERMA do the needful to avoid recurrence of fuel scarcity,’’ he stressed.
The ADITOP president said the NNPC Ltd. had discharged its function by importing sufficient petroleum, but damaged and poor road network and flooding had made it difficult for trucks to distribute the products.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority says measures were being put in place to truck petroleum products via alternative routes to mitigate the fuel scarcity.
Reacting to the development, Mr Moshood Samotu, Controller, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Niger, said work was on-going on the Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida Road.
He said the contractor had been ordered to begin palliative work on soft sections.
He explained that torrential rains had been hindering the movement of articulated vehicles through the soft sections, thereby causing gridlock between Agaie and to Badegi towns.
He said 51 per cent of reconstruction work on the Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida Road had been achieved as at September.
He added that the restriction of articulated vehicles from using Bida–Minna Road by the Niger government diverted all Lagos and Abuja- bound articulated vehicles to the Lambata-Lapai-Bida Road.
Samotu said that the high traffic volume hampered smooth operations at the construction site, causing slow progress of work.
“The Lokoja-Abuja Road is under gridlock, a development that diverted vehicles to Lambata-Lapai Road.
“The Lambata-Lapai section has been completed to an appreciable level, but the Bida-Agaie-Lapai section of the road is still under reconstruction,” Samotu said.
SEC Nigeria, Ghana commit to strategic market development, cooperation
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the country and Ghana have signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation and mutual support in the regulation of the markets.
A statement by the SEC in Abuja on Sunday, said the revised MoU would encourage market integration and provide better opportunities for economic prosperity of the countries.
The statement quoted the Director-General of the SEC Nigeria, Mr Lamido Yuguda, as saying that the move would enhance global competitiveness of the markets.
Yuguda said the move would also enhance the efficiency and transparency of the markets in the countries.
”The enduring relationship between our two jurisdictions is more amplified by the fact that Ghana and Nigeria have the largest markets in the West Africa sub-region.
”It will only be good that we use the advantage of our size and peculiarities to explore viable areas of cooperation.
”This is even as we continue to work with other stakeholders to integrate our markets and provide greater opportunities for our economic prosperity,” he said.
The statement also quoted the Director-General of SEC Ghana, Rev. Daniel Tetteh as saying that both Commissions were ready to work together and develop the potentials of the capital market.
Tetteh said this would be achieved by examining issues and exploring ways to resolve them for the capital markets to work better.
