Residents of Kaduna State, north west Nigeria, have been battling with the scarcity of petrol across the state as they decry its effect on economic activities in the state.

The non availability of the product has created long queues at many filling stations across the state as independent marketers and black marketers have capitalized on the situation to increase their pump prices.

Only few of the petrol stations in the state have been opened for business since the beginning of the year, as a result of no petroleum product to sell.

Some residents who spoke to Channels Television lamented that the scarcity of petrol has drastically affected their economic and social activities.

Spokesperson for the Department of Petroleum Resources Kaduna zone, Mr Rabiu Bello, in an interview, attributed the scarcity to the inability of the Federal Government to fulfill its promise to pay the arrears of the subsidy claims to marketers.

He said that this situation, coupled with the suspension of production at Kaduna refinery for quite some time, forced the marketers to down tool.

Mr Bello further explained that the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) relies solely on the few bridging that comes from the southern depot to supply states in the North, a situation which he said had drastically affected the distribution of PMS to the state and environs.

Channels TV Correspondent in Kaduna State reported that virtually all filling stations in the state capital have not been dispensing the product since the start of the week due to the drop in supply to the state.

He said that the daily delivery to the state had dropped from 50 trucks per day to as low as 22 trucks daily, noting that the difference is a far cry when compared to the huge demand of the product by residents of the state.

He further reported that many …read more