The Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP) says the current fuel scarcity in the FCT is caused by flooding at Koton Karfe, a community between the FCT and Lokoja.

ADITOP also attributed the scarcity to the fact that alternative roads to get to the FCT are damaged and ridden with potholes making it challenging to get to the federal capital.

President of ADITOP, Lawan Dan-Zaki, told reporters in Abuja on Saturday that the solution was to hasten the reconstruction of the damaged Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida Road in Niger as an alternative route.

“A lot of our trucks are loaded with petroleum products but cannot go through the flood area freely, while the empty ones cannot return to load products,” he said.

He appealed to the Federal Ministry of Works to hasten works on alternative roads.

“This is imperative because our truck drivers spend 10 days going through the damaged Lapai-Agai-Bida Road and another 10 days returning to depots,” he said.

Mr Dan-Zaki also lamented the frustration faced by truck drivers hauling petroleum products across the country.

“It is also difficult to take the eastern road carrying products from Calabar-Oghara-Port Harcourt-Warri because the road is bad and truck drivers spend more than a week in trucks queues,” he said.

Mr Dan-Zaki also said truck drivers usually avoided Mokwa Road through Kaduna because of insecurity, adding that drivers were being kidnapped on that route.

“We are appealing to the federal government to ensure that the ministry and FERMA do the needful to avoid the recurrence of fuel scarcity,” he stressed.

The ADITOP president said the NNPC Ltd. had discharged its function by importing sufficient petroleum, but damaged and poor road network and flooding had made it difficult for trucks to distribute the products.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority says measures were being implemented to truck petroleum products via alternative routes to mitigate fuel scarcity.

Reacting to the development, Moshood Samotu, controller, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Niger, said work was ongoing on the Lambata-Lapai-Agaie-Bida Road.

He added that the restriction of articulated vehicles from using Bida–Minna Road by the Niger government diverted all Lagos and Abuja- bound articulated vehicles to the Lambata-Lapai-Bida Road.

Mr Samotu said the high traffic volume hampered smooth operations at the construction site, causing slow work progress.

(NAN)