The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has assured Nigerians that it is taking measures to end the lingering fuel scarcity.

Its acting state coordinator in Katsina, Abdullahi Musa-Mohammed, gave the assurance on Wednesday in Katsina.

“People should be rest assured that very soon, this thing will be over,” he said. 

According to him, efforts are being made to see the queues disappear entirely, as the agency will continue trying its best by monitoring the products up to filling stations.

“By so doing, we believe that these queues will soon disappear,” he said. “So, I am calling on people to be law-abiding; they should avoid going to filling stations with jerricans to buy fuel.”

He noted that the fuel scarcity started due to flooding that destroyed some roads linking southern parts of the country from where the products are transported to other parts.

“You know petrol supply chain is something once there is a delay in the chain of supply, even if it is one, two or three days, it shows.

“The impact of that will be felt sometimes; that is why we are still battling with that situation,” he said.

He maintained that the duty of the NMDPRA, as a government agency was to ensure that products are delivered to fueling stations and were not diverted.

“We also follow the trucks to ensure that the products are discharged according to the allocated quantity,” he said.

Mr Musa-Mohammed revealed that once a case of diversion is established, they seal the station and ask them to pay a fine of N500 per litre of the petrol diverted.

“Sometimes they complain that the truck developed a mechanical fault on the way. In such situations, we, first of all, give them what we call a demand for an explanation, they give their explanations, but we know that not all the explanations are true.

“If they query some of the marketers about the disparity in the price, they start telling stories, blaming it on expenses they incurred in the process of transporting the fuel,” he said.

(NAN)