Abuja residents resort to walking as fuel scarcity leads to a shortage of buses and taxis

NIGERIANS living in Abuja  have resorted to walking a lot more over the last few days as a scarcity of petrol has brought about a reduction in the number of commercial vehicles on roads across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Petrol is now very scarce across Abuja, leading to buses and taxis becoming scarce, leaving workers stranded at bus stops with fewer cars on the road. Farouk Ahmed, a spokesman for the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency, had assured Nigerians of adequate fuel supply but despite his assurance, the shortages have worsened.

Across the FCT, workers were seen stranded at bus stops with fewer cars on the road. Many resorted to trekking to their destinations seeing that many public transport providers were trapped in the filling stations waiting to get fuel.

In some areas of Abuja, fuel is sold in black markets at the rate of between N400 and N1,000 per litre, leading to fares doubling across every district in the city. There were also long queues at filing stations for the non-existent fuel

One of the stranded workers said: “I don’t know what the government is doing because this fuel situation is becoming worse. I got home 9pm on Monday because of lack of transportation, as I had to trek to Berger and then hustled to get a cab to my destination at double the price.”

He urged the government to repair refineries in the country to salvage the situation as Nigerians are suffering. Another commuter, who gave his name as Toris, said she left her house at 6.30am and was still at the bus stop at 8am, lamenting that she trekked from Jikwoyi to Karu.

One cab driver, Mr David who commutes from Apo bridge to Jabi said it is difficult for taxi drivers, adding that they have to queue at filling stations for hours before they get fuel. They even lamented that some filling stations have refused to fill the tanks of customers to ensure the limited product reaches everybody.