Vice president Prof. Yomi Osinbajo on Sunday made an unexpected stopover to Oando Filling Station at Lekki area of Lagos State on Christmas Eve. He also stopped at Hayden Petrol Station on the Island. In a chat with Nigerians from all walks of life on Sunday evening during the stopover, the Vice President noted that the Federal Government was moving as quickly as it could to solve the fuel crisis and reduce the difficulties Nigerians were facing as a result.
He said, “We are trying to move as quickly as we can. Obviously, people have gone through a lot of pain and anguish in the past few days, and that is deeply regretted. We were trying to do what we can to move as quickly as possible and there is certainly enough products to be able to solve the problem.
“We will be able to solve the problem; the short period of scarcity is quite a bit of burden, but we know that so long as products are enough and the trucks coming out and feeding the stations, this will be over very soon. I am going around with the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources here in Lagos to ensure that first, the trucks are being loaded from all the depots, and also looking at the filling stations to see that things are moving on very well.
“The GMD of the NNPC is also working in Abuja to see that that things are moving quickly and we are moving around the country. So we expect that it will be resolved very quickly.”
“It’s such a shame that Christmas has been, to some extent, with this sort of discomfort. This is deeply regretted, and l know that, despite the resilience and strength of people in Lagos and the Nigerian people, we would see ourselves through this and will enjoy our Christmas and have a great new year.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that fuel scarcity during festive periods is a recurrent feature in Nigeria, although it disappeared in the last two years. The scarcity is said to be caused by greedy marketers who tried to take undue advantage of the high inter-state movements during the season.
In some states a litre of fuel rose to between N200 and N300 or above per litre as against the official pump price of N145.
