Shortly after President Bola Tinubu announced the cancellation of petrol subsidy, queues for the product have resurfaced in parts of the country.
Tinubu made the pronouncement in his inaugural speech on Monday.
“On fuel subsidy, unfortunately, the budget before I assumed office is that no provision is there for fuel subsidy. So fuel subsidy is gone,” the president had said.
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.
At BlocOil filling station, Satellite Town, Lagos, customers were seen waiting their turn to buy the product.
Similarly, at a branch of TotalEnergies in Alakija, a larger crowd was seen, with the queues already spreading to the road as of the time of filing this report.
Also, Peridot filling station, at Festac link road, housed vehicles whose owners wanted to fill their tanks.
On the other hand, Mobil, MRS, and Techno oil filling stations in Festac Town, on 23 Road, 22 Road, and 1st Avenue, respectively; were closed.
In Abuja, a branch of Nipco filling station located on Kada Road, and Mobil filling station in Mabushi, vehicular queues stretched onto the roads, in efforts to buy petrol.
The situation was grimmer in Ogun state as it was observed that from Arepo to Mowe, only three, out of over 20 functioning filling stations, were willing to sell the commodity.
At Asharami, Satellite filling stations in Ibafo and Mowe, long queues were seen.
A resident who preferred anonymity that most filling stations decided to stop selling when they were informed of Tinubu’s speech on petrol subsidy removal.
“Some of the fuel stations only heard about the subsidy removal and just stopped selling,” the resident said.
“They could have at least waited for the new president to fully resume work before acting.”
Here are some photos of the situation as captured at the filling stations visited.
