The sudden appearance of fuel queues twenty-four hours after President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy, has spread to Cross River and Osun State.
In Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, most of the fuel stations which sold the product the previous day were all locked up Tuesday morning.
All six fuel stations at the Atimbo area of Calabar were not dispensing petroleum products, this is despite that two of these fuel stations had fuel tankers that came to discharge petroleum products.
A male official in one of the fuel stations who declined comment on the matter said they were acting on orders not to sell oil..
A minibus driver, Effiong Nsa, said most of the fuel stations not selling oil had the products and sold fuel the previous day.
“I know that all these stations have fuel, they are only trying to make more profit by buying at a subsidised price and selling at a price that would be determined after the subsidy removal.
“Right now, what I have in my vehicle is going down, immediately it finishes, I will go and pack the vehicle at home because there is nowhere to buy the product,” he said.
A passenger, Juliana Adak, stranded at the Edim-Otop junction, said the suffering was so much as she had been there for over 30 minutes without getting a bus to take her to her destination.
Adak appealed to the Federal Government to look into the matter, adding that it was too early for the nation to experience fuel scarcity with the new administration
Similarly, queues have appeared at filling stations in Osogbo metropolis a popular filling station opposite Ayegbaju International Market, Osogbo, which was selling at N250 at the initial stage, hurriedly raised the pump price to N270 due long queue of motorists.
The queue of motorists waiting to buy fuel at the NNPC filling station at Abere stretched to the entrance of the Osun State House of Assembly, which is about five kilometres away.
Aside from these two filling stations on Osogbo-Gbongan road selling petroleum products to motorists, other filling stations on the axis were not.
On the Oke-Fia to Agunbelewo axis, only Bovas filling station was still dispensing with long queues of motorists, causing traffic hold up.
Meanwhile, the state government said its Special Monitoring Team on Fuel Scarcity would begin monitoring all filling stations across the state in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders.
The spokesperson to Gov. Ademola Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed said this in a statement, adding that any fuel station found hoarding fuel would be sealed and operators prosecuted for crime of economic sabotage.
“The attention of the Osun state government has been drawn to the deliberate hoarding of PMS by the fuel dealers within the State as a result of the Inaugural speech of President Bola Tinubu on the removal of fuel subsidy, thereby causing unnecessary hardship for the people of the state.
“This deliberate action is not only inhumane but unpatriotic and will not be allowed by the government.
“To this end, the special monitoring team on fuel scarcity, set up by Gov. Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, and headed by the Chief of Staff, Kazeem Akinleye, is still effective and shall not condone any form of economic sabotage.
“As from today, 30th May 2023, the Committee shall begin special monitoring of all the filling stations across the state in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders,” the statement read.
