The Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that 244 trucks of Premium Motor Spirit had been trucked out for Abuja and its environs.

Mr Garba Deen Muhammad, Group Managing Director, Public Affairs Division, said this while monitoring some filling stations on Tuesday in Abuja.

“Today alone, I think about 244 plus another 35 trucks came to Abuja and by tomorrow, we are expecting that it will continue and throughout the week.

“We expect that this situation will abate with this ongoing effort.”

He thanked Nigerians for their patience and noted that with what was observed, queues would continue to go down and eventually vanish.

He further commended the orderliness at the stations and urged managers of the stations not to support any form of sharp practices.

He said that the supply gap had been bridged, adding that effort was being made to get the distribution effectively carried out.

“In Lagos the situation is getting better because the motorists are cooperating, though there are some challenges here and there.”

On the allegation that taxi drivers engaged in multiple buying and selling to black marketers, he said that measures would be taken to stop such practice.

“I have heard about it too since yesterday; somebody told me that some taxi drivers join the queue to buy and sell to black marketers because they found it more profitable than to do taxi business.

“They have the right to buy the fuel but one thing they are not allowed to do is to sell it to black marketers.

“May be we need to be more innovative, because to sustain the system, we need to create a way that people will not take advantage of any situation to punish others.”

He added that use of indelible ink may be adopted to stop some of the sharp practices, adding that deploying security people and other strategy would be used.

He noted that the Port Harcourt Refinery had been refining between three and five million litres daily.

He said that Kaduna would be on stream any moment.

Also, Mr Justin Ezeala, Executive Director, Supply and Distribution, Nigeria Products Marketing Company, said there was more than sufficient products to wet the country.

He called on Nigerians to be patient as the cargoes were going through the system.

“As I talk to you now, we have cargoes that are in Calabar and Warri; what this entails is that it gives us the capacity to load for our people faster.

“Loading from Lagos takes about five days to take to Abuja and another five days to come back; so to shorten it, we try to move our cargoes to Warri, Port Harcourt and Calabar.”

According to him, it takes about two days to get up north and Abuja.

He added that in a couple of days, the products would permeate all corners of the country, adding that people should stop panic buying.

Ezeala said that the idea of one-cargo-one-day was still on and currently 12 cargoes were already on ground and another seven were expected for Wednesday and days ahead.

“The cargoes are there; I am just confident that we will not have the supply gap again.”

NAN reported that most of the filling stations visited were selling but with visible long queues.

The stations include Forte Oil Maitama, NNPC affiliates in Wuse two and Apo.

Mr Tayo Egwuleli, Regional Manager, Forte Oil, said there had been constant supply of the products and that the queues were gradually reducing by the day. (NAN)

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