Some car owners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) say they have abandoned their vehicles due to the incessant long petrol queues and have resolved to commercial commuting.
The residents who spoke with journalists on Sunday in Abuja decried the unending fuel situation, saying it was unexpected after the federal government removed the petrol subsidy.
Rebecca Takaa, a public servant and resident of Usuma Dam, said she had stopped using her vehicle for weeks.
Ms Takaa said, “It has been stressful using commercial vehicles since I can not afford to buy fuel for my car, and I do not have the time to join the long queue.
“To avoid this trouble, I just stopped using the car for now and resolved to taking commercial vehicles to the office and back, which is also expensive but not as much as using my car,” she said.
Alu Joshua, a commercial transporter in Bwari, said the situation had been so discouraging that some of his fellow drivers could not do business for days.
He said the fuel situation kept coming up at unexpected times to disrupt the now staggering businesses in the country.
Mr Joshua appealed to the government to make deliberate policy action to end the reoccurring situation.
Another resident, David Ogedengbe, told journalists that he had not been able to buy petrol for almost a week despite joining a queue with his vehicle almost daily.
“I had no choice but to resort to buying from the black market, where I bought for almost N1,500 per litre.
” The situation is getting difficult and pathetic by the day, and what is most worrisome is that the petrol is yet to be available,” he said.
On her part, Jennifer Ibrahim, who owns a hairdressing salon in Nyanya, also decried the effect of the fuel situation on her business, adding that the black market price has not been equally affordable.
” We are appealing to the government to act swiftly and bring a lasting solution to end this fuel scarcity to save Nigerians from the stress and also make it beneficial to everybody,” Ms Ibrahim said.
For weeks, the FCT has experienced long queues at filling stations, with a petrol price surge from N850 to N980 and N1,000 per litre in some locations.
The black marketers sell a 10-litre gallon for as high as N10,000 to N15,000.
However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has continued to assure Nigerians that efforts were being made to restore normalcy to the now deteriorating situation.
(NAN)
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