Fuel scarcity, a shame – Osinbajo

By Lawrence Olaoye Abuja

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described the ongoing fuel scarcity across the country as a shame of the nation.
According to a statement made available to newsmen by his media aide, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo said this in his interaction with Nigerians in Lagos after touring the filling stations in some parts of the state.
Osinbajo, who said the government was feeling the pains of Nigerians who are being subjected to undeserved hardship by the fuel scarcity, assured that government official were working round the clock to restore normalcy in few days.
Osinbajo said “It’s such a shame that Christmas has been, to some extent, with this sort of discomfort. This is deeply regretted, and l know that, with the resilience and strength of people in Lagos and the Nigerian people, we would see ourselves through this and will enjoy our Christmas and have a great new year.”
He however assured that “the Buhari administration is doing everything possible to quickly resolve the fuel shortages experienced by Nigerians.”
He had an unexpected stopover to Oando Filling Station at Lekki area of Lagos State on Christmas Eve. He also stopped at Hayden Petrol Station on the Island.
In a chat with Nigerians from all walks of life on Sunday evening during the stopover, the Vice President noted that the Federal Government was moving as quickly as it could to solve the fuel crisis and reduce the difficulties Nigerians were facing as a result.
He said, “We are trying to move as quickly as we can. Obviously, people have gone through a lot of pain and anguish in the past few days, and that is deeply regretted. We were trying to do what we can to move as quickly as possible and there is certainly enough products to be able to solve the problem.
“We will be able to solve the problem; the short period of scarcity is quite a bit of burden, but we know that so long as products are enough and the trucks coming out and feeding the stations, this will be over very soon. I am going around with the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources here in Lagos to ensure that first, the trucks are being loaded from all the depots, and also looking at the filling stations to see that things are moving on very well.
“The GMD of the NNPC is also working in Abuja to see that that things are moving quickly, and we are moving around the country. So we expect that it will be resolved very quickly.”