News
Nigerians Spend Hours at Filling Stations While Benin, Niger Enjoy Smuggled Fuel
While Nigerians spend long hours and struggle for petrol at filling stations, neighbours Benin and the Niger Republic are using fuel smuggled from Nigeria to power their vehicles and generators.
This is according to new investigation published by PUNCH on Saturday.
For the umpteenth time in 2024, queues in filling stations have returned and motorists are groaning about the struggle for petrol and increased pump price. Passengers equally bear the brunt as fuel scarcity and increased pump price have resulted into increased transportation fares.
PUNCH’s correspondents who travelled to Cotonou and Calavi, discovered the realities of the residents of these two cities were a stark contrast to the harsh realities that stare Nigerians in the face.
Unlike Nigerian petrol stations where motorists have been queuing for long hours since this wave of fuel scarcity resumed in August, there were no long queues in filling stations across these two cities in Benin.
The atmosphere in petrol stations in these two cities were calm when the correspondents visited. They also observed that the customer turnouts in those petrol stations were low, unlike those in Nigeria where petrol stations were filled to the brim with cars, that drivers sometimes parked on the roads and caused traffic congestion for other road users.
Philip Umo, an attendant at the Sylfrec Filling Station, in Benin Republic, who spoke in French, said while fuel was consistently available in their country, the challenge was finding buyers for the product.
This investigation also revealed that many traders who engaged in selling black market fuel in the country sourced the product from Nigeria.
Wasiu Olawale, a black market fuel trader, said there was enough fuel in Benin and everyone knows that much of it comes from Nigeria, but it is cheaper there than it is in Nigeria.
Although the Nigerien government had outlawed smuggling fuel from Nigeria into their country, black marketers in Niger still found a way to beat security and smuggle fuel through the borders.
Hassan Muhammad, a black marketer in Konni, Niger, also said that they got their products through smugglers in Nigeria.
“We get our supply from Nigeria but not through legal means; most of the people that supply us are Nigerians who make the fuel available to us here,” Muhammad said.
“They use the bush path and, at times, through the waterways but not through the legal land border.
“It is a smuggled product and their prices differ. Some sell for us like N1,100 per liter or less sometimes.”
On Monday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL), claimed it was addressing the current fuel scarcity.
Ekom Idemudo, the secretary of of the Independent Petrol Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), told FIJ on Monday that petrol marketers lacked the product because marketers did not have the product, and this was because they could not get allocations from the NNPCL.
He also added that the price had gone up because of the cost of transporting trucks containing the petrol to various places across the country.
Credit: FIJ
News
Watch current episode of Your family Lawyer as Chinye breaks down intricacies of bloodlines, DNA tests
Again, Chuma Chinye a seasoned lawyer in last Saturday’s podcast of Your family Lawyer adequately thrashed out intricacies associated with DNA tests and bloodlines in family matters.
WATCH:
Protests erupted in Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Monday morning over the continued killings of indigenous residents by gunmen suspected to be Fulani militants.
The demonstrations, led by Christian leaders including the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Polycarp Lubo, commenced on Monday morning at the Fawvwei Junction community road, causing a heavy gridlock and stranding commuters.
The latest protest comes amid a surge in violent attacks by gunmen in various communities, with over 100 people killed in Bokkos and Bassa LGAS in the past two weeks.
“We are not happy over the continuous attacks and killings by gunmen in our communities. That’s why we have come out again to protest these happenings,” said Gyang Dalyop, one of the protesters.
Another protester, Hannatu Philip, called on the government to intervene before it spirals out of control.
The protesters brandishing placards with different inscriptions were seen marching towards the Rayfield Government House.
The Presidency has said the former Labour Party, LP, presidential running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed is no match for President Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare was reacting to Datti’s remark that he (Tinubu) would not run for the presidency in 2027.
The former LP running mate insisted that Tinubu’s time is up, adding that everything is there for the president and the ruling All Progressives Party, APC, to see that they lose in 2027.
Dismissing such remark, Dare likened Datti’s comment to the new year predictions of charlatan ‘prophets’ which never come through.
In a statement he signed, Dare said the likes of Peter Obi and Datti would have been president left for the latter’s theories.
According to Dare, Datti has chosen to venture into an unfamiliar terrain.
The statement reads partly: “Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed’s “illogical logic” was all over the place in his recent interview with a television channel.
“Listening to Yusuf Datti Baba- Ahmed spurn his postulations about the political future of Nigeria and that of the incumbent President is like listening to the new year predictions of charlatan ‘prophets’ which never come through. Yusuf Baba Ahmed and his co-traveller Peter Obi are indeed a “double whammy“ in the Nigerian political space.
“He chose to base his political calculations on President Bola Tinubu not winning a second term given his antecedents and because Nigerians will decide at the polls among other things. He conveniently avoided the substance of performance and capacity.
“Unfortunately, he chose to walk into a lane he was unfamiliar with and chose to confront a politician he is no match for.”
Similarly, the Presidency had also stressed that Tinubu will reveal his plans for a second term at the right time.
It said the APC 2027 presidential campaign billboards had no links to Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.
-
News7 hours agoBREAKING! Pope Francis is dead
-
News11 hours agoRetirees with outstanding loans may lose property – FG
-
News21 hours agoIsrael’s remote controlled bulldozers breaking ground in Gaza war
-
News4 hours ago
UPDATED: How Pope Francis transited, last activity, health challenges, others
-
News12 hours agoSad as hotelier slumps, dies at wife’s 60th birthday thanksgiving
-
Sports23 hours agoEPL Results: Chelsea Boost UCL Hopes, Arsenal Win Big, Man United Lost
-
News21 hours ago70-hour Chess Marathon: Onakoya reportedly breaks record set by Norwegians
-
Metro12 hours ago77-year-old Nigerian Uber driver shot dead in US, passenger in critical condition