TheCable

The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has inaugurated a task force to monitor distribution and sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, across the country.

TheCable had reported on February 8 that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) confirmed that petrol with methanol quantities above Nigeria’s specification was discovered in the supply chain.

The development caused scarcity of petrol and resultant long queues in filling stations across Lagos and Abuja.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) had assured it has over one billion litres of safe petrol in its stock for nationwide distribution.

Speaking during the inauguration of the task force in Abuja, Solomon Adodo, NYCN president, said the team will enforce the measures taken by the NNPC to mitigate the difficulties faced by motorists as a result of the short supply of petrol.

Adodo said it has become imperative to ensure that Nigerians do not go through further hardship in buying fuel across the country.

“While we commend the steps taken so far by NNPC to recall the contaminated fuel, we are committed to teaming up with relevant agencies to ensure that normalcy returns to the country’s fuel supply chain,” Adodo said.

“We are satisfied with the prompt action taken by the NNPC and its partners to ensure 24-hour supply and sale of the product which we can confirm are already yielding positive results.

“Though there are still queues at petrol stations, constant supply of the product as seen during our inspection of some fuel stations in the federal capital city is an indication that the queues will disappear within the shortest possible time.

“We have so far gotten confirmation from several filling station managers that they have on ground several trucks of petrol for discharge and are expecting more. We also elicited their commitment to ensuring that normalcy is restored in sale of petrol.”

The NYCN asked Nigerians to desist from panic buying.