While the scarcity of petroleum product continues to plague Nigerians nationwide, the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream and Midstream) has called on security agencies to apprehend hoarders of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol.

This is while the committee reassures Nigerians that gasoline is available based on its findings and emphasizes that the logistical issues that have caused the commodity to become scarce are being resolved.

Ikenga Ugochinyere, the chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and co-chair of the committee, stated during a press conference on Wednesday at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja that while there was enough gasoline to last the nation for roughly 30 days, the supply and distribution to marketers was hampered by issues with transport vessels “That was supposed to take the products from offshore to onshore.”

Ugochinyere, who represents Ideato North/South Federal Constituency of Imo State, said, “We strongly frown at the activities of middlemen who have taken advantage of the short disruption of supply, to maximize profit and generate an inordinate gain for themselves, at the detriment of our people.

“We hereby call on security forces to support the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners and other key stakeholders in the distribution chain, to ensure that acts of economic sabotage that has to do with hoarding, arbitrary increment in price, products diversion and smuggling are detected and dealt with.

“Our people have been through a lot in the last few days and we must not plunge them into further pains. We appeal to all traders and those rendering services not to unduly take advantage of this temporary challenge, which will be cleared in the next few days.”

The Committees gave Nigerians assurance that the difficulties would be solved in a matter of days.

Ugochinyere said, “It is so painful that Nigerians have been subjected to great hardship and pains as a result of the scarcity of petroleum products in the past few days.

“This development has led us as representatives of the people, to engage with the regulators of the relevant sectors to find out the cause(s) of this scarcity and provide solutions to same.

“We express our concerns over the temporary presence of fuel queues in petrol stations nationwide. This has adversely affected the lives and businesses of Nigerians across the country.

“As elected representatives of the Nigerian people, we are greatly disturbed by this development.

“However, we are convinced that this is temporary and that we will get over it in a few days. From our investigations, we have found out that petrol products are available.

“We have it on good authority that we have at least 1.5 billion litres of petrol in our storage facilities that can last for 30 days.

“It is, however, saddening to note that it is as a result of logistics that the queues have resurfaced. These logistic issues range from difficulty in transporting products from the mother vessel to the respective petrol stations.

“Movement of products from offshore marine vessels to the stations, disruption from Escravos channels.

“We have gotten the assurances from the regulators in the value chain that these bottlenecks are being cleared. In the course of this public holiday, more grounds will be covered.

“From our findings, the issues that necessitated the disruptions which led to the appearance of fuel queues in petrol stations have been cleared,” he added.

He urged Nigerians to have patience, pointing out that the fuel lines will clear in two or three days.

Henry Okojie, the chairman of the Committee on Petroleum (Midstream) and co-chair of the committee, urged Nigerians to exercise patience and assured them that the gasoline problem will be resolved this week.