The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources, (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere has asked Nigerians not to panic over the current fuel scarcity across the country saying that it would be over in less than 48 hours.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Hon. Ugochinyere said from the findings of the Committee, there are enough petroleum products in the country to serve for the next 30 days appealing to Nigerians to desist from panic buying because according to him, “the problem would soon be over.”
He explained that the supply and distribution of the product was disrupted by challenges of transport vessels that was supposed to take the products from offshore to onshore assuring that the logistics challenges have since been addressed and product distribution have commenced and the queues will disappear in matter of days, “hence the need to avoid any panic buying as there are product availability.”
The downstream and midstream Committees led by Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere and Hon. Odianosen Okojie respectively stated this at a press conference focused on scarcity and how to provide solutions to the same.
Ugochinyere who represents Ideato North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State, stated that in the last few days the downstream and midstream Committees reached out to the stakeholders in the distribution value chain; the NNPCL, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and engaged extensively with them with a view to ascertaining the cause of the resurgence of the fuel queues across the country.
The lawmakers expressed concern over the temporary presence of fuel queues in petrol stations across the country which has adversely affected the lives and businesses of Nigerians and expressed optimism that normalcy will return in a few days.
According to Ugochinyere, “from investigations, they found out that there is availability of petrol products, at least, about 1.5 billion litres of petrol that can last for 30 days.”
He noted that “it is as a result of logistics that the queues have resurfaced and these logistic issues ranged from difficulty in transporting products from the mother vessel to the respective petrol stations.”
He assured that the lawmakers have gotten assurances from the regulators in the value chain that these bottlenecks are being cleared.
