One week after fuel scarcity descended on Abuja, the situation has become pathetic, with the commodity getting more and more difficult to get.

As most filling stations remain shut, desperate motorists have been forced to patronise black market operators just to stay on the road.

Motorists who spoke with Transport & Business Express in Abuja this morning disclosed that they had to buy from the black market.

“I managed to buy four litres this morning from the black market and I know I may have no option than to buy again when it finishes,” said a former Presidency employee who had to convert his car into an emergency kabu-kabu so as to be able to fuel it.

In satellite towns like Gwarimpa, a litre of fuel sold for N450 and N500 over the weekend.

“My friend bought for N500 litre over the weekend but it has come down to N300 now,” said a female legal practictioner who spoke with Transport & Business Express.

Fuel sold at the official price of N97 per litre until the crisis started last Wednesday, two days after the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) began a seven-day warning strike by suspending lifting of petroleum products to Abuja.

The strike is a strategy by oil marketing companies, depot and jetty owners under the umbrella of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), and Jetties and Petroleum Tank Farms Owners of Nigeria (JEPTFON) to get the Federal Government to pay their members all outstanding subsidy claims amounting to N200 billion.

After initial grandstanding, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, initiated a meeting with representatives of the striking oil marketers in Abuja but nothing concrete came out of it. The ministry had earlier denied the allegation of the oil marketers, accusing them of blackmail.

NUPEND has threatened to make the strike nationwide from today but its leadership has been invited to a meeting by the Federal Government with a view to averting the strike.

Update news