Published
on January 18, 2023
The scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) that has hit Osogbo and other towns in Osun in recent days is yet to abate.
This is as queues are still observed to be persistent in major petrol stations across Osogbo, Osun State capital.
The most affected parts of Osogbo include Ogo-Oluwa, Oke-Fia, Old Garage (Freedom Park), Lameco-Service area and Ayetoro area.
This is as private vehicle owners have complained that long hours in petrol stations were impacting negatively on their productivity.
Many of them who are civil servants in the state civil service added that by the time they are opportune to get the product, several hours would have been wasted, and work that needed to be done would be postponed till the next day.
Speaking with DAILY POST on Wednesday morning, Hakeem Fashola, a civil servant, stated that he had been coming to the same petrol station, and was not able to fuel his car.
“There was a particular day I was in queue for three hours, and at the end of the day, I had to call it quits in order for me not to have a mental breakdown.
“The situation is so pathetic and something needed to be done urgently,” he said.
Esther Fakunade urged the agencies saddled with the responsibility of regulating the upstream and downstream supply of petroleum products to intervene in order to forestall unforeseen circumstances.
“We initially thought this was a New Year and Christmas thing, as we often experience in this country, but this problem has dragged on without any solution in sight.
“Worse thing is that government agencies would be reeling out figures and statistics, and nothing on the ground would be done.
“Nigerians don’t really know what caused this round of fuel scarcity. Is it hoarding, festivities or just artificial scarcity because of the coming election? We don’t know, and nobody seems to be talking,” she said.
Lasisi Abegunde, while alleging that most of the petrol stations have fuel in stock, regretted that security agencies and government task forces saddled with monitoring these fuel stations have relaxed in their duties.
“Worse is that these queues surface during the morning rush hours and in the evenings,” she lamented.
It can be recalled that in December 2022, at the onset of fuel scarcity across the country, the Department of State Services (DSS) issued an ultimatum to the petroleum marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to make Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) available.
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