(NNPC),Aisha Abdulrahman,on Tuesday, assured Nigerians that long
queues in petrol stations will end before weekend.
Aisha gave the assurance when the Supervising Minister of
Information,Edem Duke, visited the NNPC Mega Station on Olusegun
Obasanjo Way in Wuse Zone 1, Abuja.
"We are assuring you before the end of the week queues will be a thing
of the past and if it still persist, I will personally be on the
stations to see that you get fuel", she said.
Aisha said the queue was as a result of speculations about impending
increase in pump price of petrol.
"There is this speculation that price of fuel and other products will
be increased and people tend to panic.''
She, however, said that leakage and pipeline vandalism were part of
the challenges facing distribution. According to her, the corporation
is doing its best to address the problem.
"I think this is a wrong time for Nigerians to begin to queue up to
buy fuel and engage in panic buying.
It is easing out, and by tomorrow and by the end of the week, the long
queues will disappear all over the country", she said.
She added that the corporation had adopted a standard practice by
ensuring 24 hours service delivery to ease out the queues.
Managing Director, NNPC Retail,Chris Osarumwense,said the corporation
had enough and had distributed products round the country.
"We had a small challenge in our supply systems; but that has been
ratified. It will take some time for us to clear the queue" he said.
He, however, said that Petroleum Products and Marketing Company
(PPMC), had capacity to ensure distribution of products from March 3
to April 2.
"We are to service the NNPC network, all over the country; we get
about 225 trucks daily.
In NNPC branded retail, we have about 550 retails as well as our
affiliated retails", he said.
The Supervising Minister of Information encouraged other petrol
stations to ensure 24 hours service delivery so as to ease out the
queues.
