Date: 2015-02-24

A fresh fuel scarcity on Tuesday reared its ugly head in Ilorin, Kwara state. Consequently, motorists groaned following the non-availability of petroleum products in most filing stations in the metropolis.

Most of the stations visited by our reporter blamed the development on their inability to access products from Ibadan since the past few days.  The development, which started few days ago, was initially limited to stations owned by independent marketers but yesterday it had spread to the major operators who also closed their gates and claimed they had no supply.  As at the time of filing this report, only two stations, one private and one major, were selling along the Murtala Mohammed road, Ilorin.  Also a drive from Stadium all through to Oja-Oba indicated that only one private station was attending to customers. Many private motorists who were caught unaware by the development lamented the situation. An independent marketer told our reporter that the situation might last till Friday before succour could come for motorists. 

The Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Ilorin branch, Mr. Olanrewaju Okanlawon blamed the development on the NNPC which he said had not supplied fuel to his members   “There is no product. That is the situation. We do not have products in Ilorin, even the available product is very limited. When the supply is low and the demand is high, it will jerk up the prize. That is the situation we are now. A lot of our members have not been able to buy. Government has not increased prize. But NNPC does not have enough. When they do not have enough, we used to complement their supply with private depots.

  “We used to buy from private depot but with the situation of things, our members are not able to buy at the private depot because of the price.  The private depots are selling N90 per litre. Taking it to Ilorin is another N5. Because of the high price our members cannot buy it. NNPC is selling at the normal retail price of N87, he stated.”