BREAKING: Petrol Scarcity Triggers Protest In Edo, South-South Nigeria

WATCH: Protest Rocks Benin, Edo State Over Fuel Scarcity, Economic Hardship pic.twitter.com/vUx8svt6wI

— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) January 30, 2023

SaharaReporters earlier reported that the price of premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol had gone up, with some fuel stations selling for as high as N400 per litre.

The official cost of the product used to be N165 per litre before recent reports accuse the government of quietly increasing it to N185 per litre. But due to the scarcity of the product and the rising demand, many fuel stations have been selling for between N340 and N400 per litre.

The scarcity of the product is currently causing untold hardship for Nigerians.

SaharaReporters earlier reported that President Buhari recently set up a 14-man committee that he would be heading to proffer solutions to the lingering fuel scarcity.

The committee according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylvia, will be chaired by the President as the Minister of Petroleum Resources while he will be the alternate chairman.

The committee’s job is to address the challenges in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry, causing petrol scarcity in Nigeria.

It will also track petroleum products, especially petrol to ascertain daily national consumption and eliminate smuggling.

In October 2022, Sylva said Nigeria was losing at least 700,000 barrels of crude oil to thieves daily.

The minister said this through the Permanent Secretary in the petroleum resources ministry, Ambassador Gabriel Aduda, who represented him at the 2002 graduation of students of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI).