Barely a few hours after President Bola Tinubu’s announcement on subsidy, fuel queues resurfaced in Abuja, Lagos and other states in Nigeria in panic buying. Tinubu had announced during his inaugural speech that fuel subsidy is gone.
Motorists besieged filling stations in Abuja, Nasarawa and Niger states on Monday afternoon following the news.
The announcement triggered a rush for petrol at fillings stations in Abuja and neighbouring states by motorists, as they struggled to get their tanks filled, over fear that once subsidy ends, the cost of PMS could rise above N500/litre.
Our correspondent gathered that in Lagos, PMS sold at N1000 per litre, Enugu, N950 per litre while Abuja sold from N500 to N600 in filling stations.
Oil marketers had projected that the cost of the commodity could hit N700/litre, once the Federal Government ends subsidy on petrol in June this year.
“It is not out of place to rush and fill your tank now that you can get the product for less than N200/litre, since the new President has declared that subsidy is gone,” a motorist in the long queue at Salbas filling station, Kubwa-Zuba Expressway, who simply gave his name as Ayoola, stated.
The Conoil filling station opposite the headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in the Central Business District of Abuja, also had long queues on Monday afternoon.
In Zuba, Niger State, it was observed that many outlets were shut, as the few ones, like Mobil at Madalla, that dispensed petrol, had queues formed by motorists.