The long fuel queues that surfaced in Nigeria’s economic capital city of Lagos Tuesday is artificial and will soon disappear, sources close to the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Wednesday.
”There is no reason for the queues other than the long Eid-el Maloud/Easter holidays declared by the federal government,” the source told panapress on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak for the corporation.
“We are monitoring the situation and will flood the (fuel) stations with fuel if the queues persist beyond this (Wednesday) afternoon,” he said.
Lagosians returned from the long break Tuesday to meet dry filling stations, with long vehicular queues buiding up at the few stations with fuel to dispense.
Panapress also learnt the fuel tanker drivers could not lift petroleum products from the depots in the city because of the holidays, thus creating a distortion in the supply chain.
This was corroborated by the Lagos Coordinator of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ Association, Tokunbo Korodo, who spoke in an interview published by the local media.
However, conspiracy theorists posited that the queues could be a sign that the tanker drivers were planning to go on strike to press for better welfare, and that the filling stations might be hoarding the products deliberately to enable maximise their profit in the event of a strike.
