Motorist stranded, roads deserted as petrol sells for N220per litre in Ondo

MAJOR roads in  Ondo state remained deserted following the perennial  shortage of petrol in the last one week.
Motorists were stranded ‎as almost all filling stations across the state did not open for business. Reports also says that major markers diverted their consignments to independent marketers who sold for N220 per litre in the state. The scarcity continued to bite harder ‎as the major roads became
deserted with few vehicles plying them. Vehicle owners parked them at home in in their offices following their inability to buy the product at the exorbitant price. Despite selling at N220 per litre, the queues in the few stations across the state were endless. Motorists sleep over night at the NNPC Mega station which is the only. Station selling the product at the government approved pump price. Vanguard gathered that the scarcity followed the directive from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to all dealers in the state to sell at the new price of N86:50k per liter. It was gathered that the marketers, especially the independent marketers, resolved to shut down operation in protest against the new price which the DPR was forcing on them. A manager of one of the filling stations said they decided to close down because of the new directive from the federal government compelling them to sell at N86: 50k while they are buying at N140 without cost of transportation to their stations. He said ” my boss has directed that the station should be closed because of the new directive by the federal government . Speaking on the development, the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN) Ore depot, Mr Bayo Olowokere explained that most of the stations did not open for operation because they had no product to sell at the federal government’s regulated price of N86.50 per litre . “Again they are loading partially in all the depots, Ore, Mosinmi, Ibadan and Ejigbo. Most of these depot might not load for days and we are not having enough supply and this ha seen causing scarcity because the demand is higher than supply” He said most of the independent marketers were also buying from private depots across the country as a result of the insufficient supply of the product from the NNPC Depots.