 Welcome back. It's still a breakfast on plus TV Africa and now to a first major Conversation on the program this morning the fuel sketchy that has bitten major cities in Nigeria hard Continued for at least a tenth day despised promises by the authorities ahead of you know government agencies Responsible for the fuel supply situation of the situation are baiting now in Lagos Abuja and other major cities car owners Are still having to queue overnight with hopes of being amongst the first of the early birds to buy petrol in the morning While others are having to queue for several hours in the day Just to get petrol in their tank some Nigerians ever queues at petrol stations of inflating the pump price with reports of pump attendance Charging extra before selling fuel to the public further increasing their suffering Now yesterday the group managing director of a Nigerian national a petroleum company limited melee carry Tended an apology to Nigerians over the imported adult traded fuel while appearing before the House of Representatives committee on Downstream which is investigating a fuel supply crisis saying the situation. This is melee carry now saying the situation was completely Unavoidable so there you have him refusing to take responsibility Now despite this long overdue apology Nigerians are eager to see the fuel supply crisis come to an end and the question is when Now joining us to answer this and other questions We would like to say good morning and welcome to Chinadu Okay, who is the public relations officer of the independent Petroleum marketers? Association of Nigeria in Lagos state mr. Okay. Okay. Good morning to you and thank you very much for your time Yeah, good morning. All right Fantastic fantastic and trust you well, too Yeah, no problem The day is good. All right. All right. Great. I'm so so melee carry has said that the situation is unavoidable completely You know refusing to take responsibility is however Apologize finally Nigerians are wondering when this will end, you know, because we've been hearing the situation is going to get better millions of liters of PMS being Brought back into the country and stockpile being released and all that when is this situation this crisis going to come to an end in the opinion Okay, it's very very unfortunate and I apologize To all Nigerians for this kind of thing that has happened and We're independent marketers on our own side. We are not to blame. We have said it before we are service oriented I will continue to render service As far as our stations are open and we have enough security to even run a 24-hour service So if we have product available, we will continue to render service to Nigeria and this Issues will be resolved amicably, but what I'm also trying to tell you is that we are so kind of Supplied because most of our the deposit which are those in the inland deposit are not having product all the nmcc bpmc Partilities don't have enough to service our numerals marketers marketers have thousands of tickets hanging in all the nmc Facilities and off you know some of these tickets has not been loaded So that's how now marketers are not being pushed to go to the private tank farm owners to buy petroleum products And sometimes when you go to private tank camp to buy petroleum products There are there are okay middlemen and all the rest of them. So we don't normally have We're both at governments to the price of 140 142 145 per liter At the end of the market asset buying petroleum products now in some private apple at 162 165 So, uh, how can this station be amenable when we cannot be able to buy products as governments to pay the rate So that we can be able to sell to our consumers as uh regulated by government You know, this our business is view regulated by government and this provides by government So some of the tank farm owners are selling these products to one at one at the price liner So it is very very important that the mgmda and mg of systems issues set up an intervention team So visit some of these tank farms to ensure that products are be if the product are still there Are being pushed to the market The thrift that happened in terms of the chain of supplies shows that we don't have results If we have reserved what would have been busy would have done instead of ordering Uh, 300 million liters are fresh to to use it to substitute what what what we have on ground We would have worked our reserve and use the river as an intervention So be able to ensure that the engineers don't suffer Because when there is scarcity For the time we're setting There's no way you will see if we're selling on jerry cars because people will use their vehicle And because it is just coming quickly for them People will now look use their vehicles at half of the 90 90 liters tank And also view this almost all summer at sea shore tank in the vehicle and go and queue in the filling station And uh, they have time They will queue in that filling station and buy a product and go out and go and put it back in jerry car and come to make A sharp purchase and and make a little money to see their family so you cannot overrule that so what i'm trying to say is that If we can be able to Push the energy you can be able to push more products especially to their inland depots If you also have a head at Yesterday in most media, there was even a kind of protest By independent marketers who's uh ticket and money has been lying down in the in that depot And then basically want to load and other other other price to keep and the market has to be voted We have our tickets here. Why are we bringing in pressure? Let us out so that we can go and sell to our people Okay, so That would be an intervention team. Yes, which is the nmpc and eat man as an organization So that we can be able to look at all these things and be able to handle it as quickly as possible Mr. Khadike, so I'm going at least This can say we get off the next week Mr. Khadike, so you are saying in answering the question we asked that uh, this uh, of scarcity will last till next week Um, I think melecarii had also said the same thing when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on downstream That uh, the situation will be resolved by next week But um, it's interesting to hear that for those Independent petroleum marketers losing your committee the petro the petrol stations under your your association You're saying that the stock that you have now You're getting from the private tank farms and they are selling to you at 165 naira per litre, which Is why you uh, your members are selling above the the regulated pump price Um, you also did mention a very important thing that the nmpc should have a sort of a reserve or a stockpile that they can You know release if there's any danger or Unavailability or scarcity in the economy The nmpc has said in the past yesterday actually That it has over one billion naira Oh, sorry one billion liters of safe pms In its stock for release nationwide And they're saying that um 2.3 billion liters of pms will arrive Nigeria between that's yesterday And the end of the month to restore sufficiency So, um, do you know about this one billion liters of of pms that the nmbc has Says it has in its stock because they put it up on tuesday on twitter Do you know about that? What are we spending one billion liters of Of If you have one billion liters you use your mechanism use your pipeline to use Some Are we pleased to be next thing that we have one billion liters one billion liters Depot But there are no product. Any marketer and no time people are ready. So it's been working for hours to ensure that product is really touched everywhere. So it is also important that NSVT and GMD should look at our pipeline. Because if you have a product like what you do, you pop through your pipeline. But by the way, it's a jack. Product we do in Yola. Product we do in Makodi. Product we do in because they are all designed. So if we go by the books that work one billion liters, why Nigeria's are still struggling to revive product at 200 naira per liter? Okay, Mr. Kadike, I was just trying to just build on what you said that, you know, where you're actually going to the private tank farms and the NNPC should not just tell us what is on paper, one billion liters in its stock, in its reserve. But they're saying as recently as Tuesday, they put out a statement saying that as of today, I just want to quote so it doesn't seem as if these are my words. This is what the NNPC said on its Twitter handle on Tuesday. They said quote, as of today, that's Tuesday, NNPC has over one billion liters of certified PMS stock that is safe for using vehicles and machinery, and that they have started running 24 hour operations at their depots and fuel stations to bridge the gap in the supply chain. Now this is what they said quote, in order to accelerate distribution across the country, we that's NNPC have commenced 24 hour operations at our depots and retail outlets. So is it that you are not aware? We have to be very realistic. It is not a policy statement. Yet I also know that sometimes governments apply policy statements to be able to control situations and not also allow panic buying because some of these things are caused by panic buying. So no one will come and tell you that this is the last thing we'll have to do next year. So who will go to go and feed their children, feed their schools, feed their folks with PMS, you know, so that they will not go out of stock? If NNPC have billions of personal products stock in their capacity, as I'm talking to you now, there is no product in Potapak depot. There is no product in Kalabba depot. There is no product, even though the product it must be there, but they are not loaded because they say the product is small. And what they want to do is to do an intervention. And Maketa said no, load us out. So if there are products, why would you have products? And you are, is there a Christmas tree? I should be looking at one million liters of petroleum produce. Why there are no products in their tank? Okay, okay. Can you please hold the thought? We have a report which we'll put on the air now. When we come back, we'll ask you some more questions because NNPC is saying something different from what you're saying. Let's throw that report, we'll be right back. Now, insurance has still battling with the issues of insecurity, poverty, and now, fuel crisis. This is the outlook of some parts of Lagos, the Badones Press way axis of Lagos state, while in the quest for an update on fuel scarcity. Lagos is known for incessant gridlock acceptance holidays. It is worse due to the long queues from filling stations. Motorists are saddened by the situation. The way there is first tragedy in 2017-18, 2020 when there is a lockdown. We don't know, we can't enjoy anything from government. Why? This is all forgiving for all the leaders of Nigeria. We're talking about a nation over 200 million without a refinery. We probably have to go back to the likes of Qatar, to the likes of Dubai, nations that are on their knees in the early 70s, late 70s, even early 80s begging us. Hope the people here will listen, the people who distribute the fuel, and at least they'll do the needful. We don't have to make life difficult for each other. I think they can do better. In his office, the chairman of the Lagos Zuno Council of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, New PENC, Tayo Aboyeji, hinted about a glimpse of hope. As such today, all the depots are be loading the right products. Petroleum tanker driver have been working 24 hours to make sure that this waste distributes across Nigeria. The Ipman, the IMB, everybody is working around the clock to make sure that this product gets to the stations and the fuel disappears. And I can tell you the next couple of 34 days, the fuel will disappear because there are enough production to do that. He condemned the importation of the adulterated fuel into the country, the beginning of the fuel crisis. We should make sure that we make our government accountable. The question is why somebody bring, let me call it, adulterated products or whatever they want to call it. Secondly, why are we even importing petroleum products when we have four refrigerators that are supposed to work and feed Nigeria? So it's a thought. Kano State has its share of fuel scarcity. While some motorists are lucky to get petrol for either 165 or 200 naira per litre without having to queue for long hours in some petrol stations, others complained of having to spend more hours at the stations. I have to just fill my tank there for 200 naira per litre. So up to now there's a queue, the filling stations are there who are finding it very very difficult to access petrol. So actually the first thing is that it's batting, it's batting us harder because last week we don't get this kind of queue. Because for the past five days we have been suffering a lot to get fuel. Even though my tank is almost empty, so I just pray God that the situation will calm down. In petrol stations, a litre of fuel is sold at 165 naira per litre, but in the black market they sell a 5 litre gallon of fuel for 1200 or 1300 since fuel is now scarce. Also Nigerians in Abuja are trying to cope with a week-long shortage of petrol as Africa's biggest economy struggles to end crippling fuel shortages. Today I couldn't make anything. Yesterday, today I'm here and my family are suffering one way the other. Definitely affects all of my plans. It affects even my health, you know. But what do I do? I have no choice than to go through the Jacinta Ubyuku plus CV Africa. All right, Mr Ukadeke, can you hear us? And that's a report on the situation from our correspondent. Hello sir, are you there? Okay, so listen, one of the respondents there was a Nupeng official who said at the time that report was made that the depots were loading and that all the people in the supply chain, including even my members who are the marketers, are getting the product. This is a Nupeng official. So how can you therefore now say that the depots are not loading and hence you having to buy from the private tank farms and then you have to now sell above pump price? I want to clarify an issue here. Maybe you got it wrong. There are what we call inland depots of PPMC. These depots are managed by PPMC. There's no private depot tank owner. But it is for cities owned by PPMC and MPC. And most of our independent marketers are docile in that PPMC depots. And our tickets are also there. And as I'm saying to you, I've mentioned the names of these depots and where they are located. And as I'm talking to you right now, they are not loading. Okay, you talked about Calabar and some other places. What about Legos and Abuja? There is no depot in Abuja. What about Legos? There are videos in Legos. There are three private tank farm owners in Legos. And it's numeral. Is there no NNPC loading point in Legos? There are NNPC videos in Legos too. Are your members loading from those loading points, the NNPC PPMC loading points? Let's make an example of Mosimidepot. I said Mosimidepot. There is a little product left in Mosimidepot. And as I'm talking to you now, they are not loading. Because there is a lockdown between marketers who have tickets in that depot. And the NNPC's management. How can we hear it from a new PEN official that all the NNPC depots he can confirm are loading? The NNPC has put out a statement saying they're releasing one billion litres from their reserve. And that the major oil marketers, Association of Nigeria, your sister organisation, EAPMAN, depot owners, Petroleum Products Markets Association of Nigeria, they are all, they've commenced to in the following as recently as Tuesday. Let's say, there is a little property to the Nupeng Zonakia man who mentioned it. He said, EAPMAN and IMD and other stakeholders, we are ready to work in our depots for hours to ensure that we litter the nation with petroleum products. But as I'm also letting you know, I'm telling you, depots that don't have products. If the depots are having products, you confirm. But as I said, as a sportsman of EAPMAN, I'm telling you that this is the depots. Don't have products. So Nigerians will continue to pay above pump price till when next week do you suspect? Very quickly, please. Well, like I said before, with the efforts of governments and the policies of governments of saying they have one billion litres, I said when the contaminators were entered its country, you also had the NNPC saying that they have imported 300 million litres to be able to affect the crisis. Are you not seeing the steepest in this statement? And now we have one billion litres a reserve. So if there are these products, I don't think we should have experienced all these issues. Because if there are products, we market as we want to load. Nupeng wants to go to work. Everybody wants to go to work. So whatever is the bottleneck of not releasing these products to depots, NNPC should do that. All right, Uche Okadike, the public relations officer of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much for your time. Well, it remains to be seen when the situation will come to an end. The marketers have the business of dispensing the field to the public, and that society responsible for it. It's done its best to give us a picture of the situation at the end. Battle for the soul of the APC Noshu State. We'll talk to members of the Progressives Congress up next right here on the breakfast. Please stay with us.