The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed three filling stations found to be hoarding fuel in Akure.
The officials of the DPR in Ondo State, led by the Deputy Operations Controller of the Akure office, Godwin Obasuyi, made the disclosure to Channels Television.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers on Monday said petrol would soon be available in filling stations across the country.
The chairman of the South-West chapter of the union, Tokunbo Korodo, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that there had been improvement on loading of petroleum at the depots in Lagos.
President Muhammadu Buhari has apologised to Nigerians over the fuel scarcity that has persisted across the country since October.
He apologised during the presentation of the 2016 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has blamed the federal government for the protracted scarcity of petroleum products in the country, describing government explanations as window dressing.
The union also said while it recognised the fraud in the fuel subsidy regime, it would resist any attempt by government to remove subsidy until necessary palliative measures were put in place to reduce the impact on the populace.
Respite seems to be in sight for Nigerians over the unending fuel scarcity witnessed across the country, as the Federal Government, yesterday, said it has paid N407.077 billion to oil marketers for their outstanding subsidy claims.
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja stated that the Presidency had directed that the payments be made immediately in order to bring to a quick end, the lingering fuel crisis which has caused great suffering to Nigerian families and businesses.
Lingering queues in petrol stations nationwide, coupled with arbitrary increase in the price of fuel, are symptoms of the abnormality in the Nigerian downstream sector.
Worried by the continued scarcity of petroleum products in the market, Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, Monday night, intervened with a crucial call to marketers on the best way to end the current fuel crisis, which had engulfed the country in the last couple of months.
The call came as a proposed meeting between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. IbeKachikwu, suspended a meeting between him and major marketers, scheduled to hold in Lagos Monday.
The Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream has given the Minister of State for Petroleum and the NNPC two weeks to end petrol scarcity in the country.
The committee handed down this directive at a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Petroleum, NNPC and agencies in the petroleum sector.
For nearly three weeks, there have been long queues at different petrol stations across the country; a situation that has defied solutions by previous administrations and has again reared its head a few months into the present government.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, apologised to Nigerians for the hardship experienced in purchasing petrol, while it also stated that it had entered into a partnership with security agencies in the country to assist in the monitoring of fuel supply across the country.
He said: “We must all make sure that petroleum products get across to Nigerians at the regulated price especially as the yuletide season approaches. We have enough products and we want to plead with the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTDs) not to be involved in the diversion of petroleum products in order to avoid causing untold hardship to motorists.”
Respite seems not to be in sight for motorists, as the fuel queues worsened, yesterday. Motorists faced untold hardship in their quest to purchase Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol.
This was even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, increased its fuel supply to petrol stations across the country to 34.844 million litres.
Nigeria Gists 