Follow Us on Google
From John Adams, Minna
Hundreds of angry motorists, yesterday, stormed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) mega station in Minna, Niger State, protesting the prolonged non-availability of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), which they said had rendered their converted vehicles unusable and frustrated their efforts to reduce transportation costs.
The protesters, many of whom said they had spent hundreds of thousands of naira converting their vehicles from petrol to CNG, expressed outrage that the dispensing facility at the station had remained out of operation for over three months without any indication of when supplies would resume.
They accused the management of the station and relevant authorities of abandoning motorists who embraced the Federal Government’s CNG initiative in response to the rising cost of petrol.
The protesters, including commercial vehicle operators, said the prolonged shutdown had defeated the purpose of converting their vehicles to run on cheaper and more environmentally friendly gas, leaving some unable to operate their vehicles and others facing additional financial burdens.
The angry motorists, who besieged the NNPC mega station along the Western Bypass in Minna, demanded an immediate explanation for the prolonged shutdown and urgent intervention to restore gas supply.
They lamented that repeated visits to the station over the past three months had yielded no positive results, while the management had allegedly failed to communicate a definite timeline for restoring operations.
An employee of the station, who spoke to Daily Sun, attributed the prolonged disruption to a faulty component of the CNG dispensing machine, which he said had remained unrepaired for about three months.
According to him, the breakdown had left motorists dependent on the facility without a reliable source of CNG, forcing some vehicle owners to abandon their vehicles.
One of the protesters, Abdullahi Mohammed, said the motorists had exhausted their patience after several unsuccessful attempts to obtain explanations from the station’s management.
“It is so discouraging that for over three months now, the CNG station at NNPC Minna has not functioned. Imagine that since January, some people did conversion, and they have not recovered their money, especially the commercial vehicle operators,” he lamented.
“The CNG dispensing machine broke down, nobody has spoken to us. We have come here several times demanding answers from the management, and nobody is talking.
“So, for now, we want to bring the attention of Nigerians and those in authority to the situation in Minna. CNG is the heartbeat of the President. He commissioned a committee to look into this scheme, and these people are taking us for granted.”
Mohammed said motorists had embraced the conversion programme with the expectation that the government would provide adequate infrastructure to guarantee steady access to gas.
Other News
He expressed disappointment that vehicle owners who invested their savings in the initiative were now being left without the fuel needed to operate their vehicles.
Another protester, Musa Saidu, narrated how he spent over N1 million converting his vehicle to CNG, only to discover that he could not access the product in Minna.
“The frustrating aspect of it all is that I just installed CNG, spending over a million naira, without a single gas supply in Minna. We kept hoping that it was going to be fixed today, it was going to be fixed tomorrow, and up to this moment, there is nothing,” he said.
“Nobody is saying anything. The station is just lying fallow. In short, I had to disconnect some of the cylinders installed in my car because there is no gas. What kind of government are we in? It’s frustrating.”
Saidu questioned the rationale behind the Federal Government’s continued encouragement of vehicle conversion without ensuring the availability of adequate dispensing facilities across the country.
He argued that motorists who responded to the government’s campaign to embrace CNG deserved reliable access to the product rather than the uncertainty and additional expenses they were experiencing.
The protesters maintained that the situation had imposed a fresh financial burden on vehicle owners already struggling with rising transportation costs and other economic challenges.
They said some commercial operators who converted their vehicles in the hope of reducing daily operating expenses had been unable to recover their investments because of the prolonged shortage.
The motorists also expressed concern that the continued breakdown of the facility could discourage other vehicle owners from embracing the Federal Government’s CNG programme.
Although the demonstration was peaceful, the protesters warned that they would organise a larger protest if the station’s management and relevant authorities failed to address their grievances.
They said the next demonstration would involve more aggrieved motorists, including commercial tricycle operators whose vehicles run on CNG.
They demanded urgent repairs to the faulty dispensing equipment, restoration of gas supply and clear communication from the station’s management on when normal operations would resume.
The manager of the NNPC mega station could not be reached for comments at press time, while attendants on duty declined to speak on behalf of the management.
