Date: 2021-11-09

Black marketers of petrol surfaced in parts of the Ilorin metropolis on Tuesday as they dispensed the commodity in Jerry cans to interested motorists and other consumers, National Pilot learnt.

Though some filling stations dispensed the commodity at the time of filing this report, it was reliably gathered that there had been shortfall in supply of PmS to Oke -Oyi deport since Monday, making many retailers suspend petrol sales.

Our reporter who went round the metropolis brings reports that some black marketers of petrol were spotted in some key locations in the capital city on Tuesday.

They sold their products in 10-litre Jerry cans at a price between N2,000 and N2,500 to motorists who could not stay in queues at filling stations. Speaking with our reporter on Friday, the state Secretary of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Oguntade Kayode confirmed truly that there was a shortfall in the supply of the commodity to Kwara, attributing it to artificial scarcity from Ibadan supply cluster.

"It is true there was a gross declined in the supply of premium motor spirit (PMs) to Kwara State. Ilorin deport is just a terminal and whatever the quantity of supply in Ibadan is proportionate to what we gets in Kwara. "The available petrol product at present in Kwara is not enough and outweighed the demand hence the scarcity experienced across the state in the recent time," Oguntade said.

He added that government is trying to put things in order toward increasing the supply as he urged motorist to stop panic buying ,saying the supply would soon be jackup.

"If you notice, some filling stations in Ilorin are still selling and dispensing the product to motorist, while some few have refused to sell. "We want to appeal to the people of Kwara State not to be distracted by the artificial scarcity and stop panic buying. Every thing will soon normalized, "he assured.

Another marketer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told our reporter that the partial scarcity in Kwara could be due to product hoarding by tank farm owners, as some of the tank farms recently increased their prices. "Petrol scarcity is likely going to happen because there is supply drop and some of the private tank farms have increased their prices from what we used to buy it before. We don't know what the cause is,"he said.

The source added that if the scarcity persist, there will be problem saying most of these tank farm sellers of petrol always feel sceptical about pushing out products towards the end of the month.

"Also, you know we are approaching the festive period of Christmas. So is like there is product hoarding on their part."