Despite the revelation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there are no plans to increase the price of petrol in March, scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) petrol on Monday persisted in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The Nation reports that it monitored the petrol market situation around 10:00am to 11:30am, noting that all the retail outlets between Kubwa and Zuba expressway were not selling to customers.
According to the paper, from Zuba to Giri junction to the Airport road by Soka, no station was selling petrol at that time.
It added that while some of the outlets were under lock and key, other opened were not selling petrol.
It would be recalled that Nigerians were at the weekend thrown into confusion as fuel scarcity hit Lagos, Abuja, and many other cities across the country.
Reacting to the development, the NNPC in a statement on Sunday by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, stated that the Corporation was not contemplating any raise in the price of petrol in March in “order not to jeopardize ongoing engagements with organized labour and other stakeholders on an acceptable framework that will not expose the ordinary Nigerian to any hardship”.
“NNPC also cautioned petroleum products marketers not to engage in arbitrary price increase or hoarding of petrol in order not to create artificial scarcity and unnecessary hardship for Nigerians.
The Corporation further stated that it has enough stock of petrol to keep the nation well supplied for over 40 days and urged motorists to avoid panic buying.
“It further called on relevant regulatory authorities to step up monitoring of the activities of marketers with a view to sanctioning those involved in products hoarding or arbitrary increase of pump price”.
