Abuja, Feb. 19, 2024 – Long queues of vehicles resurfaced in many petrol filling stations in Abuja on Monday, while many other stations locked their gates as the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) begins its strike.
The Conoil filling station along the Zuba-Kubwa expressway in Abuja had long queues, while the NNPCL retail outlet along Arab Road in Kubwa was closed.
The NNPCL station in the Central Business District in Abuja also had very long queues of vehicles.
The situation is the same in Lagos as many petrol stations have closed their gates to customers due to fuel shortage.
Some have even stopped selling fuel since last weekend.
The NARTO members have failed to stop the strike in spite of the Federal Government’s directive to negotiate with marketers to stop the strike.
Yusuf Othman, the National President of NARTO, the gave notice of the strike in a press statement last weekend.
Their grouse is the high operational costs being incurred by members daily and which had impacted negatively on their operations.
According to Othman, what his members’ “spend on operation is more than what we get in both in local and bridging”.
“We will have to suspend operations from now till Monday,’’ he had said on Friday.
“We cannot continue to operate at a loss. Most people have parked. A lot more are going to the park.
“But from the point of view of the association itself, we are going to suspend operations on Monday.”
Othman said all efforts to get any intervention from the Federal Government had failed in spite of many appeals to them.
“We have written letters up to the level of the Chief of Staff. We have written to the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil).
“We have written to DG SSS and others,” he said.
Othman said his members had been enduring a long time ago as the same freight rate that was in force while President Muhammadu Buhari was in government was still subsisting.
According to him, the N32 Lagos to Abuja freight rate that was implemented while the dollar was N650 is still retained now that the dollar is N1,615.
“Everybody is aware that all our consumables in terms of operation are not produced in the country.
“If you have a truck of 40,000 litres, you are talking of N1,280,000-N1,216,000. Less 5% of the amount of N1,280,000 Withholding Tax N64,000. Less than 55,000 loading expenses and 15,000 driver allowance.
“Total expenses N134,000, while balance is N1,146,000. AGO is N1400 for 900 litres, totalling N1260,000.
“There is a total loss of N114,000. The diesel that you use from Lagos to Abuja is 900 litres. So, when you use 900 litres at 1,400, that will be N1,260,000. So, it is by far more than what is paid,” he said. (GBN)
