Worried by the continued scarcity of petroleum products in the market, Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, Monday night, intervened with a crucial call to marketers on the best way to end the current fuel crisis, which had engulfed the country in the last couple of months.

LAGOS — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday blamed the persistent fuel crisis on the continuous vandalisation of the System 2B pipeline at Arepo, sharp practices by oil marketers and the delay in the payment of outstanding subsidy claims to the marketers.

ABUJA — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, yesterday, apologised to Nigerians for the hardship experienced in purchasing petrol, while it also stated that it had entered into a partnership with security agencies in the country to assist in the monitoring of fuel supply across the country.

In a bid to step up action against the antics of major and independent petroleum marketers across the South-East and south-south geo-political zones leading to acute fuel scarcity, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, yesterday, sealed 86 filling stations in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra and Delta states found violating ethical practices.

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that it is aware of the suffering and hardship that Nigerians are passing through, occasioned by the biting fuel scarcity across the country.

EFFORTS by senators of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to convince the Senate to summon President Muhammadu Buhari to give reasons for the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country, were frustrated, yesterday, by their counterparts in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Five ships laden with petroleum products and foods have arrived Lagos ports, waiting to berth, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Tuesday in Lagos.

ABUJA — The fuel crisis continued unabated in Abuja and other parts of the country, yesterday, as motorists thronged the few petrol stations selling the product.

THE Federal Government, yesterday, urged Nigerians to exercise patience over the fuel crisis currently witnessed across the country, while it assured the public that the fuel queues currently witnessed in petrol stations would disappear within the next 72 hours, as it has stepped up activities to ensure a significant increase in fuel supply.

ABUJA— Motorists faced hard times as the fuel crisis situation continued across the country over the weekend with long queues witnessed in almost all the petrol stations selling the products.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has put the acute shortage of petrol being experienced nationwide at the door step of owners of private tank farms and alleged lack of will by the regulatory agency, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, to enforce operation rules.

THE Management of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, has blamed the lingering scarcity of premium motor spirit, PMS, otherwise called petrol across the country on lack of payment of subsidy claims to oil marketers.

MINISTER of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, has said that the only solution to the problems in the petroleum industry, especially the scarcity of petroleum products, was the privatisation of refineries in the country.

Most restaurant operators were seen lamenting low sales due to lack of fuel to power their generators as public power supply remains erratic.

The fuel scarcity situation in Nigeria is set to abate, as major fuel marketers, yesterday, said they have secured the delivery of about 74 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, at their depots in Lagos.