Queues return to Abeokuta, Lagos, and Abuja after Tinubu’s petrol subsidy removal speech
Shortly after President Bola Tinubu announced the cancellation of the petrol subsidy, queues for the product resurfaced in parts of the country.
Tinubu made the pronouncement in his inaugural speech on Monday.
“On fuel subsidy, unfortunately, the budget before I assumed office is that no provision is there for fuel subsidy. So fuel subsidy is gone,” the president had said.
Soon after, it was observed that some filling stations visited in Abeokuta, Lagos and Abuja were closed while others that dispensed petrol had large queues of cars and people, lining up to fill their tanks and kegs.
At BlocOil filling station, Satellite Town, Lagos, customers were seen waiting their turn to buy the product.
Similarly, at a branch of TotalEnergies in Alakija, a larger crowd was seen, with the queues already spreading to the road as of the time of filing this report.
Also, the Peridot filling station, at Festac link road, housed vehicles whose owners wanted to fill their tanks.
On the other hand, Mobil, MRS, and Techno oil filling stations in Festac Town, on 23 Road, 22 Road, and 1st Avenue, respectively; were closed.
In Abuja, a branch of Nipco filling station located on Kada Road, and Mobil filling station in Mabushi, vehicular queues stretched onto the roads, in efforts to buy petrol.
The situation was grimmer in Ogun state as it was observed that from Arepo to Mowe, only three, out of over 20 functioning filling stations, were willing to sell the commodity.
At Asharami, Satellite filling stations in Ibafo and Mowe, long queues were seen.
A resident who preferred anonymity told Journalists that most filling stations decided to stop selling when they were informed of Tinubu’s speech on petrol subsidy removal.
“Some of the fuel stations only heard about the subsidy removal and just stopped selling,” the resident said.
“They could have at least waited for the new president to fully resume work before acting.”
Meanwhile, the downstream end of the Nigerian petroleum industry has gone into a frenzy as operators respond to the immediate removal of subsidy on petrol with a sharp hike in pump price just as consumers crowded to the petrol stations.
Commercial transporters have also hiked their trip fares across the country in response to the developments.
Checks by Our Correspondents in Lagos showed that some marketers responded by increasing their prices by about 100 percent to N370 from N185 per liter
However, few other stations especially the major marketers, sold between N195 and N220 per liter across Lagos and Abuja.
Our findings also showed that some of the petrol station operators simply shut their filling stations, thus leading to the emergence of long queues.
This is even as depot owners shut their operations, arguing that further clarification was needed to guide activities on the implementation of the new order.
In Abuja, long queues re-emerged at petrol stations as motorists reacted to the removal of subsidy on petrol.
