BREAKING-Petrol now sells for N600 per liter at border towns

Long queues experienced at filling stations in some communities as fuel scarcity looms..

The Federal Government's order to stop petroleum products being supplied to filling stations within 20 kilometres of the closed borders, has triggered fuel scarcity in some border communities, thereby resulting in increase in pump price of petrol.

According to Punch, residents of border communities in Ogun, Lagos, Adamawa, Katsina and Sokoto states are groaning over the order.

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali says the partial border closure will continue until the set objectives are achieved. [Twitter/@NGRPresident]

Pulse had reported that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, in a memo dated Wednesday, November 6, 2019, gave an order through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), that ordered that petroleum products should not be supplied to petrol stations within 20km of the borders.

Following the new order, fuel price in Ogun, Lagos, Adamawa, Katsina, and Sokoto states, has surged as scarcity looms in communities such as Ihunbo, Ilase, Ajegunle, Idiroko and Agosasa in the Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun.

Similarly, at the Seme border in Lagos on Monday, November 11, there were fuel queues as only two filling stations were opened for business.

More so, many filling stations were said to be shut in Ogun.

According to Punch, 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.

Speaking on the matter, one of the residents of Ipokia, Elijah Akinola, accused the security agencies in the area of sabotaging the economy of the country.

“Can you imagine buying a litre of fuel at the rate of N600?" he queried. "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."

President Buhari ordered the closure of Nigeria's land borders in October, due to smuggling activities from neighboring countries like Benin, Niger, Ghana and Cameroon.

It has long been reported that most of the petrol meant for the Nigerian market are often smuggled to neighboring African nations at higher prices.