By: Felix Ikpotor
Following the fuel scarcity rocking the country, the Rivers State Government has said that it’s doing a lot to ensure that people of the state do not suffer so much from the situation.
Commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources in the state, Dr Peter Medee while appearing on a radio programme monitored in Port Harcourt said his ministry has been working round the clock to ensure that products meant for the state are not diverted.
Medee who noted that the problem at hand is not that of the state but from the federal, however said, his ministry is following up the issues and doing all it can to ensure that the state does not suffer much.
The government official said the situation in Rivers State is better than other states because there is availability of the products even though it is sold at a high cost in some stations.
He said: “The problem we have in our hand is Federal Government problem. It’s not a Rivers State problem; we are not responsible for it. Federal Government imported some fuel into the country. Also the issue here is on the exclusive list of the government and as such the state has no role to play here”.
He added: “The importation they did is the problem now because our refineries are not working. We have crude but we are not producing so we are left to the interplay in the international market. In the international market there are sometimes sharp practices which have led to the importation of bad products. When that product got to the market, there was the need for it to be withdrawn and Government took responsibility and had to withdraw it”.
“Now the plan for the withdrawal was not properly coordinated so that created a gap in the country, it’s that gap that we’re suffering from now. The gap between the withdrawal of these products and bringing in of new products.”
On the situation in the state, Medee said: “It actually didn’t start with Rivers State because we have lots of tank farms and depots in the state. Because we have those facilities in place, we had enough supply. So the products we had in Rivers State were carrying us during this period of removing the bad ones and bringing in the new ones. So we were managing the ones we have here and didn’t have any problem until suddenly when other ones in other parts of the country got exhausted so there was an upsurge of demand from marketers into Rivers State to buy the ones we have. So as they came in to buy, our own stocks were getting depleted to the extent it became exhausted and they were buying these products in bulk purchase and because these depots are private depots there was no way it can be regulated and that led to our products getting exhausted”.
Continuing he said, “Now our marketers here were now left at the beck and con of these people who bought bulk purchase from Rivers to now buy from them so we started experiencing the problem”.
“Now, when it came to a crisis dimension, as a responsible government, I called stakeholders in the state which includes the petrol retail owners association of Nigeria, independent petroleum marketers association of Nigeria, security agencies, the Upstream Commission (former DPR) and we came out with a five points resolution which includes setting up a team comprising of these stakeholders to liaise with NNPC to see if they have some stock that they can give to the state, release the names of stations that have loaded products and monitor to see if they are selling at government approved prices.
“We also urged marketers to source for the fuel from anywhere to make availability in the state and to sell at their landing rate and they did that that’s why the situation is better in Rivers State in the sense that we have the product even though they are selling at higher price, that’s better than not having the product at all. So because we have more of the products in the state, the queues in the stations are not much”.
However, he said the marketers are playing with the situation such that if queues are long in their stations, they increase price but if it’s low they reduce price, “that’s why prices are not stable in the stations”.
On other efforts to ameliorate the situation, he said: “We also approached NNPC and they released five out of their eight reserved trucks loaded with 5,000 litres each of products for the state. They gave us the manifest and we followed through to see that the stations were selling at the government approved price of 165. When that finished we ensured another two trucks were delivered to the state until a new vessel carrying products arrived in the state”.
“So as we speak now, from last week Thursday, loading had been on and we have been receiving daily manifest of those loading from that Thursday until date and names of the stations were read out for people to go there and buy.
On the high prices, he urged people to buy from stations selling at government approved prices so that others would be forced to reduce theirs.
“So the idea is for people to go to those stations that we have fuel and buy at government approved prices and those who are selling at high prices would be forced to reduce price when they no longer see people coming to buy.
“Like I said, this is not our problem. It’s a problem of the failure of the federal government that has inflicted this sufferings on Nigerians but as a responsible state, the governor is so concerned that he has insisted that Rivers people must have fair deal in the bad situation that we find ourselves and that’s why we have been working round the clock to ensure that products availability in Rivers State is better than the crisis in other states”.
He urged people of the state to be patient with the government as it tries to normalise the situation.
“In a state where we have expecting 50-100 trucks a day, and the maximum we have gotten is 22 in a day. So it’s a gradual process before it can ease off,” he said.
While expressing the hope that as more products come into the state the situation will normalize, he called on people of the state to avoid panic buying.
