Artificial fuel scarcity bites hard in Kwara …As long queues resurfaces

Palpable anxiety is growing in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital has merchants of fuel has imposed an artificial scarcity on the community.
At few petrol stations that sold the commodity our correspondents noticed that long queue of cars and motorcycles had resurfaced.
Users of the product scrambled to buy when our reporters visited some filling stations within Ilorin metropolis. Some of the stations were major and independent dealers.
Though a litre of petrol was still sold at official price of N87 in some filling stations, others sold a litre at N100.00.
Findings showed that, for the past one week, fuel marketers were unable to lift the commodity at Oke-Oyi NNPC depot.
Our correspondent observed that out of about eight petrol stations on New Yidi road, only one station was dispensing fuel to members of the public.
At NNPC Mega station, a major marketer along Asa-Dam road, and  MD Ayoka filling station on Jebba road, long queue of cars caused serious traffic gridlock as motorists and other road users got stuck due to indiscriminate parking of cars on the road.
It was gathered that users of fuel engaged in panic buying because of scarcity.
A senior official at Yemsonat petrol station along New Yidi road, Ilorin told Our correspondent on condition of anonymity earlier today that no official reason was given for the development.
The source stated that since all efforts to find solution to the imminent fuel crisis at the Oke-Oyi depot were abortive, his station had resorted to lifting fuel in Lagos' depot at the rate of N86 per litre.   
"We don't know what is happening. For the past seven days, we have not been able to load at Oke-Oyi depot. No explanation was given to us. As a result of that, we have started buying fuel in Lagos at N86 per litre.
"Even in the next few hours, we are going to exhaust what we have in our stock."
Some users of fuel who spoke to Our correspondent at petrol stations visited said they were stunned with the development as the scarcity might be artificial.
They alleged that many stations deliberately locked their gates against customers to create impression that there was no fuel while they were yet to run out of stock.
Several attempts made to reach the Manager of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Oke-Oyi depot were unsuccessful as telephone calls made to his mobile handset were not answered.
A text message sent to him to inquire about the fuel situation in the state was also not replied as at the time of filing in this report.