Unscrupulous petrol dealers are diverting loaded trucks to Nigeria’s neighbours for huge profit, the reason fuel queues persist in Lagos despite the massive efforts being made to make the queues disappear.
Daily, 1400 trucks are loaded at depots. But most do not get to the right destinations in the metropolis.
Minister of State (Petroleum) Dr. Ibe Kachikwu told a town hall meeting in Lagos that 30 per cent of the fuel supplied is diverted to neighbouring countries.
“I have had countless sleepless nights. I work round the clock to solve this problem because whatever touches you touches me. Over 30 per cent of fuel is diverted to Chad and Cameroon. But I continue to oversupply and you see some people making money out of the agony of Nigerians.”
“What we met on the ground when we came was complete lack of transparency but we have worked to put everything in order. The loss of N300 billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been reduced to N3billion, subsidy payment has been reduced to near zero. We are focusing on business, not bleeding the government.”
“We are working on ideas to solve the problems. I worry about a lot of things, about the trucks. What we want to do now is to make sure that we select only truckers who can install trackers on their trucks; we are looking at intelligent solutions. Don’t judge us by the supply of fuel; we are working hard at all the issues and believe me I have energy to throw at everything.”