The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has linked the recent increase in long fuel queues at filling stations to the ongoing hunger protests across the country.
Since last Thursday, Nigerians have been staging demonstrations under the banner #EndBadGovernance, demanding the restoration of fuel subsidies. The protests have resulted in at least fifteen deaths and damage to properties in Kano, Niger, Jigawa, Yobe, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In response, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a broadcast on Sunday, urging protesters to suspend their demonstrations and engage in dialogue with the government.
With the situation still unfolding, oil marketers have cited the protests as the reason for the fuel shortages. Chief Chinedu Ukadike, IPMAN’s National Public Relations Officer, noted that the movement of fuel trucks was disrupted, particularly on Thursday and Friday, due to the protests.
“…Now that the trucks are no longer moving due to this protest, the depots are not working, the truck drivers are not driving, particularly during the first and second days of the protest, these issues have disrupted the supply of petroleum products. So it will result in scarcity at the filling stations,” Ukadike stated.
Earlier, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited blamed the resurgence of long fuel queues on a “hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.”