Fuel Scarcity Kills Boxing Day Aura in Jos

Govt getting around the situation, says DPR
Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

As the prevailing fuel scarcity continues to bite harder in Jos, Plateau State, the usual aura that usually characterises the Boxing Day, in which families visit their loved ones and tourist centres, were completely lost in Jos/Bukuru metropolis.

When THISDAY visited Jos Wildlife Park, Jos Zoological Garden, and Solomon Lar Amusement Park, the turnouts were relatively low compared to previous festive seasons when the centres received unprecedented visitors, even as streets within the city were deserted.
Meanwhile, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has appealed to citizens to continue to be calm, reassuring that government was working round the clock to ensure that fuel becomes available in the state and nation-wide soonest.

Addressing journalists in Jos, the state Operations Manager of DPR, Mr. Jeremiah Mashat, explained that “there has been dip in supply of fuel to the state in the past three weeks, noting that a total of 214 trucks have been supplied to the state during this period, and if you divide 214 trucks by 21 days, you will get an average of 10 trucks per day for a state that has 17 local government areas.

“You can see that some local governments may not get the product at all; that is how critical the situation is. Under normal condition Plateau gets about 30 trucks per day, but it has now gone down to as low as 10 trucks per day.

“The fact is that there have been administrative challenges between government and marketers taking sometimes to be resolved. Once in a while government has to reconcile its records with the marketers, and that takes a while. But I can assure you that government is working round the clock to get the issues resolved. We have sent reports from the state to the Minister, and I believe the other states have done same. And I can assure you that government is working hard to resolve the crisis; and I believe in a short while the situation will be brought under control.”

He dismissed the insinuations that the scarcity has anything to do with yuletide period, saying “it is not aimed at making life difficult at Christmas; it’s a mere coincidence.”
He added that in spite of the scarcity, the DPR in the state has ensured that the product is not sold above government official price of N145 per litre.

“We go around every day to monitor the filling stations to ensure that the product is not sold above N145 per litre. We have also put some measures in place to ensure that trucks that leave the depot are tracked till they get to their destinations to ensure that the product is not diverted to wrong destinations.”