More filling stations opened up their outlets for sale to motorists yesterday to ease the fuel scarcity which surfaced in Lagos late Monday night.
The filling stations that sold fuel have however adjusted their fuel dispensing machines to reflect an increase in pump price.
For instance at Heyden filling station in Ilupeju, petrol sold for N179 per liter against its previous pump price of N169/liter before the scarcity.
Some other independent marketers in the state sold the product for between N180 and N195 per liter. The new pump price, marketers claim, is in reaction to a hike in the depot price of the product which rose from N148.17 per liter to N178 per liter at the private depots.
Checks showed that some major NNPCL stations in the Lagos metropolis closed to motorists as they claimed they had no stock.
The Chairman, of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Western Zone, Dele Tajudeen, confirmed the price hike by private depots since last week, a situation he said has been further compounded by the non-availability of petrol in any of the NNPC depots.
“None of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) depots has petrol and the private depots took advantage of the situation to hike the price. The only option for our members is to opt for private depots to keep our business moving.
“We are totally against the increase because it will affect our profit margins and the masses. Some private depots who have the product, deliberately, refused to sell for reasons best known to them,” Tajudeen explained.
