Fuel scarcity: Ekiti residents in panic buying, as Fayemi fumes, threatens hoarders

Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti

Residents of Ekiti State have resorted to panic buying of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol as most filling stations in the state, including those in Ado Ekiti, the capital city, refused to open for business.

The few stations, mostly those of NNPC and major marketers, which opened witnessed long queues with motorists and cyclists spending hours on queues.

Queues resurfaced in the state on Friday when most filling stations did not open for sale.

The situation has compelled many owners to leave their vehicles at home. On Saturday, fuel hawkers, believed to have bought the product through nocturnal arrangements and selling the product in jerry cans at exorbitant prices, were noticed on major streets. Worried by the development, Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, appealed to owners and operators of filling stations in the state to desist from hoarding petroleum products thereby creating artificial fuel scarcity in the state.

In a statement on Saturday by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Yinka Oyebode, Fayemi, who described hoarding of petroleum products as an act of economic sabotage, which creates unnecessary hardship for the people and cripples businesses, said, “any filling station caught hoarding fuel will receive heavy sanction”.

Oyebode said monitoring teams had been dispatched to go round filling stations in the state and ensure that no filling station hoarded fuel to the detriment of the people.