Residents of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, were on Saturday thrown into uncertainties as fuel queues resurfaced across filling stations.
The queues surfaced Friday afternoon and remained through Saturday, as motorists were seen scrambling to buy petrol. 
A PREMIUM TIMES correspondent who visited petrol stations Saturday morning found that while there were queues at some filling stations, other stations did not sell the product.
A random survey of petrol stations within the city showed that the pump prices ranged between N670 and N690 on Saturday morning while the retail outlets of the NNPC continued to sell the product for N617 per litre.
Most motorists who could not bear to stay in queues at the filling stations found an alternative in the emergency roadside fuel hawkers. But this came at a higher cost of about N10,000 for a 10-litre jerry can.
A long queue was seen at the NNPC retail outlet Central Business District area, resulting in traffic gridlock.
Most of the filling stations visited in Lugbe, Kubwa, and Gwagwalada were not selling the product.
The anxiety over the scarcity of petrol is coming weeks after fuel queues resurfaced in the nation’s seat of power.
Earlier in the month, long queues resurfaced at filling stations across Abuja, as motorists struggled to purchase petrol.
At the time, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) said logistics challenges and flooding caused the fuel queues seen in the FCT and some parts of the country.
Some motorists who spoke to a PREMIUM TIMES’ reporter on Saturday said they were surprised by the sudden reappearance of the queue.
“I was so surprised to see that long queues suddenly reappeared in filling stations. I wanted to get fuel yesterday evening, I had to drive around the town and still yet I did not get fuel,” Musa Adamu, a commercial motorist, said.
Another motorist, who gave his name as Baba, said “I don’t understand what is happening again in the country, today you see the queue and the government will come and give us some excuses as to why there is a queue. This thing is not funny anymore. Yesterday morning I bought fuel only to return to filling stations today, to see that most stations are no longer selling. God help us.”
A car owner, Egbe John, said “Just yesterday and today it has become so difficult to get petrol. I just hope this issue is not because of the protest coming up soon. Maybe the government is trying to make the protest difficult.”
NNPC Speaks
In a statement on Saturday, Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of the NNPC Ltd, attributed the sudden reappearance of long queues in Abuja to a “hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels.”
“The NNPC Ltd wishes to state that the tightness in fuel supply and distribution witnessed in some parts of Lagos and the FCT is as a result of a hitch in the discharge operations of a couple of vessels,” Mr Soneye said.
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The company further explained that it is working round the clock with all stakeholders to resolve the situation and restore normalcy in the operations.
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