Many filling stations were shut on Tuesday, leading to lengthy queues by motorists for Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, at the few outlets that dispensed the commodity in Abuja and neighbouring states.
Petrol scarcity resumed again in the Federal Capital Territory and environs on Tuesday after about a month break, as motorists and other PMS users imagined when they would see the last fuel queues in Abuja.
The petrol scarcity and its attendant queues on Tuesday were due to the warning strike by the Suleja Depot Branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.
The oil marketers commenced the three-day warning strike on Monday and stopped their members from lifting petrol from the depot to more than five states in the North, including Abuja, a development that caused scarcity on Tuesday.
The two ever-busy filling stations, Conoil and Total, located right in front of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited headquarters, shut their doors to customers on Tuesday.
The reason was that they had no product to dispense. However, black marketers in front of the filling stations and opposite NNPC headquarters used the opportunity to sell their wares at higher rates to motorists.
Government officials kept mum about the situation when contacted.
For instance, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Kimchi Apollo, did not answer his telephone when contacted. He also did not reply to a text message sent to him on the matter.
