The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has assured Nigerians that there will be no fuel scarcity during the Christmas celebrations.
This assurance was given by the group managing director (GMD) of the NNPC during a meeting of stakeholders in the oil and gas sector at the presidential villa, Abuja.
The meeting was attended by Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing; Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, and heads of agencies in the oil and gas sector and chaired by the Chief of staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari.
Recall that there was chronic fuel scarcity in the country caused by a shortfall in the supply of petroleum products in December 2017. Same situation repeated itself in 2018 after Kyari assured Nigerians that arrangement has been made to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products during the festive season.
“We are here today to take stock of our readiness for the festive period, particularly in terms of supplies and distribution of petroleum products across the country, so that this festive period will be enjoyed by Nigerians without any hitch, particularly during the Christmas and New Year”.
“We are very sure today we have very robust supply plan not just for Christmas but beyond. We are assuring Nigerians that the NNPC has made adequate arrangement to make adequate supply of petroleum products.
If there are any issues, we have come together with other agencies of government to ensure those issues are resolved to ensure Nigerians have a very merry Christmas this year.”
On the state of roads, Fashola said his ministry has directed contractors to provide palliatives to ease the movement of trucks and tankers. He said some major roads have been identified to aid the movement of petroleum products during the festive season.
“The Ministry of Works and Housing has a supporting role to play here. While construction work is ongoing on some of the routes used for moving cargo, we have met with our contractors and directed them to provide some palliatives to ease the movement of trucks and tankers,” he said.
“Some of these routes include Benin-Auchi-Okene; Warri-Sapele-Benin; Ilorin-Jaba Road; and Calabar-Itu Road. This is essentially to say we are giving everybody the support we can to ease the problem of moving fuel during the period.”
Regarding security, the IGP said the police will work in collaboration with sister organisations to boost security during the yuletide. “December is a festive period, a period when Nigerians in the diaspora will be coming to their homeland with their families. It is expected that every Nigerian is provided with adequate security for his life and property,” he said.
“For that reason, we have heightened the level of security within this period; not only the police, other security agencies are working together to ensure that the Christmas and even the New Year are celebrated without any criminal incident.”