Fuel Crisis: DPR Now Faces Public Hostility

The unending fuel crisis in the country may have assumed a frightening dimension as officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) sent out to filling stations across the country to ensure compliance with N65 per litre pump price now face hostility from motorists and street urchins popularly called “Area Boys”.

Investigations revealed that DPR officials are facing increasing challenges because some motorists don’t mind buying above the official price any longer in order to avoid the long queues at filling stations that sell at normal price.
Also, some street urchins are buying in jerry cans above the N65 per litre only to sell at exorbitant prices at the black market.

This development seems to have confirmed exclusive report that the fuel crisis is getting out of hand as DPR appears to be losing its war against profiteering and black market operators.

A DPR official said efforts by the agency to enforce compliance with N65 per litre in some filling stations were met with stiff resistance by members of the public who viewed the action of the officials as disrupting normal sales and causing avoidable long queues.

Reporters who has been monitoring the fuel situation observed that long queues are experienced only in filling stations that sell at official price and this has forced motorists to be less enthusiastic about the normal price.

This lends credence to the official position that the fuel scarcity is artificial, though some also argue that the scarcity is deliberately being inflicted on Nigerians to force deregulation down their throats.

Those who argue that the scarcity is all about deregulation, according to sources, fear the aim is to weaken the resolve of opponents of deregulation to fight against the policy and accept any prevailing market price.

“There is the possibility that they are using the scarcity to prepare grounds for deregulation. They know that at a point, Nigerians will get tired of long queues and all the stories about scarcity and all that, and will therefore accept any price. Instead of waiting for a whole day to buy at official price, many people now go for ‘whatever price per litre” they can get,” an industry source said.

Though the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, stated in Lagos last Monday that the scarcity was not caused by speculation over deregulation, his refusal to disclose the take-off date of the policy caused further apprehension among stakeholders and general panic in the system.

THISDAY reported that the current fuel scarcity in the country might worsen this week as filling stations grapple with dwindling product supply occasioned by the inability of the 15 marketers that handle fuel importation to fully activate the import licences issued to them and shortfall in supply from the Pipelines and Products’ Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

But the situation is getting compounded as DPR appears to be losing out on its war against profiteering and black market operators.

Though DPR had sanctioned 55 filling stations across the country for allegedly selling above the official price, some major marketers and all independent marketers in Lagos sell between N90 and N110 per litre without any sign of DPR intervention.
Only major marketers whose retail outlets are located at high-brow areas of Ikoyi, Ikeja and Victoria Island of Lagos were selling fuel at official pump price of N65 per litre as at yesterday.

Independent marketers in these highbrow areas, who receive products from third parties at exorbitant costs, have suspended operations over fear of being forced to sell at official prices.