Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) has attributed the current scarcity of petroleum products, especially Premium Motor Spirit(PMS) in Rivers State to sabotage caused by profiteers who are said to hoard and even divert the products meant for the State to other areas for economic selfish gains.
This was disclosed by the Controller of Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR) in Rivers State, Dr. Ibani Frank-Briggs, in a chat with newsmen in Port Harcourt on the scourge of the prevailing fuel scarcity in the State and indeed Nigeria.
According to him, Rivers State conventionally receives forty trucks of PMS for her daily consumption, noting that since the inception of the so-called fuel scarcity, the supply has increased to fifty trucks and therefore he wondered why the State still experiences scarcity.
The NNPC State Controller accused Petroleum Products Dealers of diverting and hoarding the products to create artificial scarcity in Rivers State.
“Rivers State was normally supposed to receive forty trucks of fuel supply for her daily consumption and needs as her official quota of PMS, but since the inception of the so-called fuel scarcity nationwide, the State’s daily supply of PMS has been in the neighbourhood of fifty trucks of fuel supply on daily basis, which is far higher than what most states get daily from NNPC. There is no reason why Rivers State should continue to experience scarcity of petroleum products, resulting into long queues in almost all the serving filling stations in the State, if there was no sabotage like diversion of products to other states,” Frank-Briggs lamented.
The Controller also said that the inability of NNPC to produce(refine) enough PMS for consumption in the State could contribute to the existing scarcity, admitting that most times the Authorities concerned could hardly sustain the State’s quota.
“I agree that there might be some likelihood of diversion, but I strongly believe that if there is sufficient fuel being produced and made readily available for consumers, the situation wouldn’t have been so bad as we have it today,” the Controller said.
He, however, advised the public to exercise patience as the officials of NNPC are working round the clock to ease the artificial scarcity in the State and improve the situation in the country generally.
It would be recalled that last week, DPR sealed over forty filling stations in Rivers State on allegations of under-dispensing, hoarding and even diversion of petroleum products meant for the State. Some of the filling stations were slammed with huge fines by DPR ,which must be paid before they could operate again to serve as deterrent to others.
