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Ahead of the first Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) which kicks off Monday (today), the prolonged petrol queues which have become synonymous with living in Abuja, have thinned out, apparently in response to the marching order given by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru.
Daily Sun investigation on Sunday evening revealed that most of the filling stations which hitherto ran out of petrol, were seen dispensing the product.
Consequently, the long queues which usually disrupted traffic have substantially reduced, even as motorists hoped the tempo would be sustained.
A motorist, Onyekachi Nelson, described the queue reduction as magical. “So government knows what to do to end this scarcity nightmare but kept quiet, leaving us to suffer. Where did this fuel sold everywhere come from? Why was it not sold all along? So, we should count the hosting of the petroleum summit as a huge blessing. What happens when the event ends on Thursday? Would we be going back to square one, because the order was to end the scarcity to avoid embarrassing our guests who would come from outside and see our filling stations littered with vehicles and hapless motorists waiting to fill their tanks. It’s a shame”, he lamented.
The four-day NIPS event is expected to attract players in the oil and gas sector from both OPEC, non-OPEC nations and other experts across the globe.
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