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| Fuel scarcity in Nigeria. |
Reports from various sources are now saying that marketers are being owed outstanding
subsidy debt of about N150bn while another source has revealed that subsidy debts under President Muhammudu Buhari has risen by almost N59bn.
Marketers are not willing to import petroleum products with their own money anymore because of concern that the government might not pay the debts beyond the outstanding one left by our ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. For the last two months, marketers have stopped importing petroleum products.
Now, sources are revealing that petroleum products should be exhausted by this weekend.
A source who spoke to the Daily Trust said: "The product imported by some independent marketers few weeks ago would be exhausted by this weekend. This would no doubt throw the whole nation into another round of fuel scarcity.”
Femi Adewole, the Executive-Secretary of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), has that said marketers have been constrained by the unpaid subsidies adding that the the current foreign exchange crisis and failure of banks to give loans to his members makes it almost impossible to fuel.
Despite all of the reports, marketers claim that the reason the lines are so long is because of slow loading of the fuel at depots. Vice president of Independent Petrol Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Abubakar Maigandi who spoke with Daily Trust said: “It was not true that we caused the scarcity; it is due to slow loading of fuel at both the private and NNPC depots.”