Commuters groan as fuel scarcity worsens traffic

COMMUTERS were stranded in most parts of Lagos and its environs yesterday as the petrol scarcity, which resurfaced last weekend, exacerbated traffic.

As a result, commercial vehicle drivers, whose turnaround time was drastically reduced by traffic jams, avoided most of the congested roads, particularly on the Badagry axis, Lekki, and Ikeja, among others.

The large number of commuters stranded at bus stops resulted in a sharp increase in fares, as the few commercial drivers who braved the traffic raised fares by up to 50%.

For example, the fare from Agbara to Mile 2 was raised from N500 to N700, and the fare from Badagry to Mile 2 was raised from N500 to N700.

For example, the fare from Agbara to Mile 2 was raised from N500 to N700, while the fare from Badagry to Mile 2 was raised from N800 to N1,200 per trip.

Similarly, the fare from Ajah on the Lagos-Epe Expressway to CMS increased dramatically from N500 to between N800 and N1,000 per trip, depending on bus size.

Some stranded commuters expressed concern that, with the city's transportation costs rising since the latest gasoline shortage began, they would be unable to commute within the city and urged the federal government to address the issue.

''I have been at the bus stop for over three hours waiting for a shuttle bus to get to my place of work but none is available. The drivers are blaming the development on the ongoing petrol scarcity.

''They are complaining that they can't get fuel to buy and the queues for fuel are so long that all you have everywhere is traffic, nobody can move. It is obvious I may not be able to get to work today,'' a commuter on the Lagos-Badagry route lamented yesterday.

However, in a telephone interview with Vanguard, the national president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Chinedu Okoronkwo, lamented high cost to purchase products from the depots

He said: “Currently we are going about to survey operations at the petrol stations as we hope to restore normalcy in the sector.

“The real cause of the price hike is the incessant increment in price by private depot owners. A litre of fuel is being sold to us at the rate of N210 and N214 per litre. When you add transport and logistics, you can imagine what the figure will amount to. We cannot cope with the harsh environment of doing business, caused by private depot owners.”

However, the officials of the Nigerian Midstream, Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, responsible for the technical and commercial regulation of the midstream and downstream operations in Nigeria, were not seen to enforce compliance at the various stations visited yesterday.

The chief executive officer of MOMAN, Mr. Clement Isong, had said it was working with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to find lasting solution to the shortage.

He had said: “We arranged it in a way that any MOMAN member who does not have a product can pick from fellow members’ depot to minimise supply gaps. NNPCL had an operational meeting with MOMAN to ensure that products are effectively distributed across the country. The logistics meeting was to ensure adequate distribution of products to stations across the country.”

Culled from Vanguard