Residents of border communities in Ogun, Lagos, Adamawa, Katsina and Sokoto states  are groaning following the Federal Government’s suspension of fuel supply to areas  within 20 kilometres to  the nation’s borders.

On Thursday, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, had directed that no petroleum products should be supplied to  any filling station within 20 kilometres to the borders.

 Investigations by our correspondents   in Ogun, Lagos, Adamawa, Katsina, and Sokoto states showed that the government’s order had triggered fuel scarcity and hike in the prices of petroleum products.

For instance, investigations by one of our correspondents  showed the Federal Government’s order had led to fuel scarcity in communities such as Ihunbo, Ilase, Ajegunle, Idiroko and Agosasa in  the Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Also, at the  Seme border in Lagos  on Monday, there were  fuel queues as only two filling stations were selling fuel.

Many filling stations shut in Ogun

The PUNCH learnt that  so many filling stations  within  20 kilometres  to the border in Ipokia, close to Benin Republic had been shut by the Federal Government’s task force on border closure.

 One of the residents of Ipokia, Elijah  Akinola, in an interview with The PUNCH,  accused the security agencies in the area  of sabotaging the economy of the country.

He asked,  “Can you imagine buying a litre of fuel at the rate of N600? Before we can get fuel for N145 in Ipokia, we will need to go to Owode, which is 28 kilometres  away. We don’t know what we can do to survive.

“Before the Federal Government’s order, they (security agents) used to take bribes from marketers  before allowing them to export fuel to Benin Republic. Now that the Federal Government has stopped supply of fuel  supply to border communities, we are the ones suffering.   Artisans, even medical personnel, are the ones suffering.

One person dies in Ogun

Akinola said in Ipokia that one person died following the inability of a hospital to get fuel to power a generator to perform a surgery on the deceased.

“As I am talking to you, to power   generators  in  hospitals  at  Idiroko is difficult. Ihunbo, Ilase, Ajegunle, Idiroko, Agosasa  and other towns in the  Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State are affected. There was a patient that died this afternoon (Monday) just because  there was no electricity to power  machines  for medical examinations.”

Another resident, Ajibade Idowu, said the task force, which comprised soldiers, immigration officers and other security operatives, commenced the implementation of the policy in the area on Sunday. But he accused some members of the task force of highhandedness.

Task force brutalises people at filling stations

Idowu said, “Just yesterday, (Sunday)  the  joint task force men, comprising soldiers and others  sealed many filing stations. They brutalised people they met at the filling stations. Fuel is now sold for N600 per litre in Idiroko and Ipokia. They sealed many filling stations at Idiroko, Ipokia, Ajegunle, Ilase and Oko Eye.

“Everywhere was deserted as if the Federal Government had declared a curfew. Fuel is even not available at the black market. People are lamenting and complaining of the situation.”

On the alleged harassment of the people by the security agencies, Akinola said, “The security agents are harassing people. We cannot go out of this local government.  If we are coming from Owode with five litres of fuel, they will harass us.

“Some filling stations that have fuel in their underground tanks have closed. They (security agents) did not allow them to sell it before they started implementing the policy.”

Efforts to get the reactions of the Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Joseph Attah, did not succeed.  He neither picked calls to his mobile telephone nor responded to a text message sent to him.

Long queues at Seme border filling stations

The PUNCH gathered on Monday that only two out of more than seven filling stations at the border between Nigeria and Benin Republic in the Seme area of Lagos were selling fuel.

This, it was gathered, created long fuel queues in the area.

A resident of Seme,   who is also a commercial motorcyclist, Anthony Ukit, told one of our correspondents that he had not been working since the directive was issued.

He said, “I heard that only two filling stations are selling fuel. I have not gone out since last week. I am planning to go out tomorrow (Tuesday). Business is really dull here. No passengers.”

A customs agent and Chief Executive Officer of Fleming International Services, Mr Khally Momodu, confirmed that two filling stations, including a Total filling station close to Badagry and another one very close to it, were selling fuel.

Momodu, who has an office at Seme,  said he usually filled  his car tank before  going  to his office.

Owners of 1,000 seized trucks appeal to NCS

One of our correspondents also gathered that more than 1,000 trucks belonging to Nigerians that could not cross the borders were still stranded.

It was gathered that some exporters, who could not cross the border, wanted to return the goods to their warehouses, but were prevented from leaving the Nigerian  side of the border.

They were  told to go to Abuja to get approval.

Momodu appealed to the customs top management to do a re-evaluation of the trucks and release them to the owners.

While applauding the action of the customs, Momodu said the people that were left to suffer  were legitimate businessmen.

 He stated,  “We are appealing to the customs to do a reassessment of the trucks and release them to their owners who have legitimate business to run.”

While responding to our inquiry about enforcement of the fuel distribution order, a source at the customs who pleaded anonymity said no arrest had been made as the directive was still very fresh and had coincided with a public holiday.

https://punchng.com/supply-suspension-petrol-scarcity-hits-border-towns-fuel-now-n600-litre/amp/

I will see how this will end , my only happiness about this is that our neighbors now know who is the boss, like Ghanaians now know who be west African high priest


Oga seun , I dey greet u on top of me , u too rush FTC ?


let's meet at FP !!!

But one question that the govt has not answered is why do we have customs officers man the borders when they can't control activities there........
Do we need another security agency to take control of the borders if the customs are overwhelmed by activities there

majamajic:
I will see how this will end

Oga seun , I dey greet u on top of me , u too rush FTC ?

let's meet at FP !!!

Aswear even oga seun react dey scream ' Its Insane' to dis wan.................

Happens when you rush to implement policy directions without adequate feasibility study.

Trial by error Govt.

I think it high time custom officers are replaced with soldiers.

As much as I like the border closure, I don't support this

Is it a crime to be at a border town, why is this government this heartless, what is the work of Custom and those policing our borders....
Nigerians will be wiser, last last

sapientia:
Happens when you rush to implement policy directions without adequate feasibility study.

Trial by error Govt.

This government has no plan or direction for the populace. Our leaders are wasting money partying abroad and yet they want us to live in penury

For some reason I started noticing some kind of queues in fuel stations I didn't understand in Suleja yesterday.. I hope i

APC government they make policies without reasoning,

As some people have suggested here, the solution is simple

Stop paying underrecovery, stop paying subsidy, and all this smuggling would stop.

Because why should I sell fuel at N145 when I can sell it in Benin for N300 and above.? And make a sweet profit.

No customs or jupiter can stop me.

Of course , customs has to do their job properly. Closing the borders cannot be a permanent thing, because the market is more global than it was yesterday. But this fuel subsidy is creating more problems than solutions. It is time it had to go.

The loss outweighs the gain.

Omooba77:


Seun view is changing as everyone is seeing how repressive this government is turning by the day......
Lalalasticlala
Mynd44

.

Kanade21:
As some people have suggested here, the solution is simple

Stop paying underrecovery, stop paying subsidy, and all this smuggling would stop.

Because why should I sell fuel at N145 when I can sell it in Benin for N300 and above.? And make a sweet profit.

No customs or jupiter can stop me.

Of course , customs has to do their job properly. Closing the borders cannot be a permanent thing, because the market is more global than it was yesterday. But this fuel subsidy is creating more problems than solutions. It is time it had to go.

But there is no fuel subsidy according to emperor and his hailers. Is like a father punishing his children by not giving them food, because rats has be stealing the foodstuff.

Hello Mr. Seun, I had wanted to contact you privately over an issue, I need us to discuss something. Please advise me on the best way to either call or chat you up at your convenience, anytime today.

Thank you.

spyder880:
Hello Mr. Seun, I had wanted to contact you privately over an issue, I need us to discuss something. Please advise me on the best way to either call or chat you up at your convenience, anytime today.

Thank you.

Go to Ota and meet him...Lol...Just pulling your legs.......

Omooba77:


Go to Ota and meet him...Lol...Just pulling your legs.......

Omooba77:


But there is no fuel subsidy according to emperor and his hailers.

For subsidy to be completely gone, the government has to stop setting prices. That's why I didn't beleive Buhari and co when they removed subsidy in 2016.


Though, to be fair, they did 'remove' it. Fuel was selling at N87 at the time, while landing cost was N132.(Crude oil was also at an all time low, meaning revenues for paying for the subsidy were low) By incereasing fuel to N145, the subsidy (at that time) ceased to exist....until landing costs surpassed N145...at which point, the government and NNPC engaged in some 'creativity' by making NNPC the sole importer,ie NNPC now imports fuel at N200 and sells it at N145 and pays the difference with a little help from the government.

Meanwhile, in Benin and Niger, oil sells above N300. Of course, a guy at the broder sees a business opportunity.

(GEJ did something similar in 2011....fuel cost N99 to import, while it was being sold at N65. GEJ then riased the price to N140, ENDING subsidy...and then was forced by protests to reduce it to N97 and then to N87. Meanwhile, landing costs rose from N99 in 2012 to N132 IN 2016. Had GEJ won, he would have done something similar to Buhari's act).

Note that Nigerian governments have been doing this since the late 1970's. It only has become more notieceable since the amount of petrol consumption exceeded the amount of fuel we actually can refine if all our refinereis were working.

Kanade21:


For subsidy to be completely gone, the government has to stop setting prices. That's why I didn't beleive Buhari and co when they removed subsidy in 2016.


Though, to be fair, they did 'remove' it. Fuel was selling at N87 at the time, while landing cost was N132.(Crude oil was also at an all time low, meaning revenues for paying for the subsidy were low) By incereasing fuel to N145, the subsidy (at that time) ceased to exist....until landing costs surpassed N145...at which point, the government and NNPC engaged in some 'creativity' by making NNPC the sole importer,ie NNPC now imports fuel at N200 and sells it at N145 and pays the difference with a little help from the government.

Meanwhile, in Benin and Niger, oil sells above N300. Of course, a guy at the broder sees a business opportunity.

(GEJ did something similar in 2011....fuel cost N99 to import, while it was being sold at N65. GEJ then riased the price to N140, ENDING subsidy...and then was forced by protests to reduce it to N97 and then to N87. Meanwhile, landing costs rose from N99 in 2012 to N132 IN 2016. Had GEJ won, he would have done something similar to Buhari's act).

Note that Nigerian governments have been doing this since the late 1970's. It only has become more notieceable since the amount of petrol consumption exceeded the amount of fuel we actually can refine if all our refinereis were working.

Has long as you have PPMS fixing price and under government supervision, subsidy will be a fraud. Making border towns to pay for our inefficiencies is greater sin!

It is has if the Buhari/APC administration have declared war against the border communities.

sapientia:
Happens when you rush to implement policy directions without adequate feasibility study.

Trial by error Govt.

Kanade21:
As some people have suggested here, the solution is simple

Stop paying underrecovery, stop paying subsidy, and all this smuggling would stop.

Because why should I sell fuel at N145 when I can sell it in Benin for N300 and above.? And make a sweet profit.

No customs or jupiter can stop me.

Of course , customs has to do their job properly. Closing the borders cannot be a permanent thing, because the market is more global than it was yesterday. But this fuel subsidy is creating more problems than solutions. It is time it had to go.

Federal Government is not stupid, removing subsidy would hurt the economy even more and send Nigeria on a journey of serious economic crisis. The cost of goods and services would surge proportionally, the same with inflation and economic productivity would almost die.

With subsidy 322 companies shut down in five years, over 1,100 are at risk of shutting down in Nigeria, according to the World Bank report released this morning. Manufacturers in the manufacturing sector are complaining that the cost of generating power is hurting and limiting their productivity even with the subsidy.

The border closure has helped reduce daily consumption from 60 million litres per day to 52 million and fund allocated for subsidy in the proposed 2020 budget is around N500 billion, down from about N1.4 trillion in 2018. Nigeria just needs one more thing, technology to account for every supply and delivery. It just doesn't make sense to hurt the entire economy because of a few criminals.

Until our wage growth picked up, household savings surged (only 2% of Nigerians have over N500k in the bank account) and consumer spending improved, FG won't remove subsidy. If they do, just go climb the closed border join me at the other side.

Truth234:


Federal Government is not stupid, removing subsidy would hurt the economy even more and send Nigeria on a journey of serious economic crisis. The cost of goods and services would surge proportionally, the same with inflation and economic productivity would almost die.

With subsidy 322 companies shut down in five years, over 1,100 are at risk of shutting down in Nigeria, according to the World Bank report released this morning. Manufacturers in the manufacturing sector are complaining that the cost of generating power is hurting and limiting their productivity even with the subsidy.

The border closure has helped reduce daily consumption from 60 million litres per day to 52 million and fund allocated for subsidy in the proposed 2020 budget is around N500 billion, down from about N1.4 trillion in 2018. Nigeria just needs one more thing, technology to account for every supply and delivery. It just don't make sense to hurt entire economy because of few criminals.

Until our wage growth pick up, saving surge and consumer spending improve, FG won't remove subsidy. If they do, just go climb the close border join me at the other side.

Bros, you are absolutely right.

But keeping the subsidy is making things harder for us. Money that would have been used for salaries, for education and so on is being funneled into a subsidy that is a slush fund for government and private sector looters.

Yeah, when I say subsidy must go...I know things would be hard. But at the same time, jobs would be created in the refining of petrol as more and more people build refineries, because now, refining fuel would be prfoitable in Nigeria. And refined products could be exported.

Look, in countries like Benin, Ghana, Niger, etc, fuel costs above N300 and above. (You can check on google....even Chad pays higher than we do). Have those countries collapsed?? No. Nigerians are even running to Ghana self.

Also, crude oil, our major revenue earner, is so low, and has been low since 2014. Putting it bluntly, we do not have the cash to keep on paying for this.

So, oil subsidy has to go.

When GSM came toNaija, people were paying through their noses for service that was poor and baD. And Obasanjo REFUSED..TO SUBSIDISE GSM. Refused to cut prices. Because of that, GSM companies invested more, and the result is internet coverage up to 40% from less than 2% in 2001, and a telephone network that covers a larger distance than NITEL ever did.

Even that 500billion is just an estimate. It will go up once oil goes up this year.

Kanade21:


Bros, you are absolutely right.

But keeping the subsidy is making things harder for us. Money that would have been used for salaries, for education and so on is being funneled into a subsidy that is a slush fund for government and private sector looters.

Yeah, when I say subsidy must go...I know things would be hard. But at the same time, jobs would be created in the refining of petrol as more and more people build refineries, because now, refining fuel would be prfoitable in Nigeria. And refined products could be exported.

Look, in countries like Benin, Ghana, Niger, etc, fuel costs above N300 and above. (You can check on google....even Chad pays higher than we do). Have those countries collapsed?? No. Nigerians are even running to Ghana self.

Also, crude oil, our major revenue earner, is so low, and has been low since 2014. Putting it bluntly, we do not have the cash to keep on paying for this.

So, oil subsidy has to go.

When GSM came toNaija, people were paying through their noses for service that was poor and baD. And Obasanjo REFUSED..TO SUBSIDISE GSM. Refused to cut prices. Because of that, GSM companies invested more, and the result is internet coverage up to 40% from less than 2% in 2001, and a telephone network that covers a larger distance than NITEL ever did.

Even that 500billion is just an estimate. It will go up once oil goes up this year.

It is hard to explain economics to non-economic people. Those countries you mentioned are not oil-dependent economies (healthy non-oil sector), do not house 87 million extremely poor people and enjoy stable power supply (minimal fuel consumption). Also, you forget that GSM was optional (affordable by only a few at an early stage). Subsidy removal would not be optional as prices of everything would surge and hurt everyone, kids, adults, practically everyone.

Also, GSM companies invested more because of our potential, 200 million market. No reasonable investor would invest in refinery at this moment when Dangote is hitting the market with 650,000 barrels per day next year. What else are you not seeing?

Again, the campaign against fossil fuel has deepened across the world and as we know it, global investors with money like positive image, 'our activity is not hurting people in Africa' or the fear that it would all come to an end soon. The real investors have a broader overview.

The N500 billion won't go up once the budget is passed (into law) my friend.

Presently, the Federal Government wants to start withdrawing issued refinery licenses as those in possession of it are not doing anything with (around 50 modular refineries) it. Who will blame them when Dangote is almost done. Na change you call am?

Remove subsidy if all the SMEs that depend on fuel for day to day activities won't shut down and unemployment jumped exponentially. How can you even compare GSM and nations with a stable power supply to a nation like Nigeria? This is what I always tell people we have a unique situation and we must address it with a unique solution, not IMF developed solution.

How many have received the live bullets jare?

Kanade21:
As some people have suggested here, the solution is simple

Stop paying underrecovery, stop paying subsidy, and all this smuggling would stop.

Because why should I sell fuel at N145 when I can sell it in Benin for N300 and above.? And make a sweet profit.

No customs or jupiter can stop me.

Of course , customs has to do their job properly. Closing the borders cannot be a permanent thing, because the market is more global than it was yesterday. But this fuel subsidy is creating more problems than solutions. It is time it had to go.

A lot to learn about Nigeria economy