Fuel queues resurface in Lagos, Abuja after Tinubu’s subsidy removal speech

Queues for fuel remerged in parts of Abuja and Lagos shortly after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared the rekoval of petrol subsidy.

Tinubu made the pronouncement in his inaugural speech on Monday.

He said: “On fuel subsidy, unfortunately, the budget before I assumed office is that no provision is there for fuel subsidy. So fuel subsidy is gone”.

Soon after, it was observed that some filling stations visited in Lagos and Abuja were closed while others that dispensed petrol had large queues of cars and people, lining up to fill their tanks and kegs.

A Satellite Town-based filling station, BlocOil, in Lagos, had customers who were seen waiting their turn to buy the product.

Another similar scenario played out at a branch of TotalEnergies in Alakija, where a larger crowd was seen, with the queues already spreading to the road as of the time of filing this report.

Peridot filling station, at Festac link road, also housed vehicles which owners wanted to fill their tanks.

Mobil, MRS, and Techno oil filling stations in Festac Town, on 23 Road, 22 Road, and 1st Avenue, respectively; were closed.

A branch of Nipco filling station in Abuja, located on Kada Road, and Mobil filling station in Mabushi, vehicular queues were seen stretch onto the roads, in efforts to buy petrol.

In Ogun state, the situation appeared more gloomy as it was observed that from Arepo to Mowe, only three, out of over 20 filling stations on that stretch, were willing to sell the commodity.

Long queues were seen at Asharami, Satellite filling stations in Ibafo and Mowe.

A resident who preferred anonymity revealed that most filling stations decided to stop selling when they were informed of Tinubu’s speech on petrol subsidy removal.

Volunteered the resident: “Some of the fuel stations only heard about the subsidy removal and just stopped selling.

“They could have at least waited for the new president to fully resume work before acting”.