Major oil marketers in Kaduna metropolis and environs have drastically reduced their hours of operations as a result of high consumption of diesel which they utilised to service the motoring public.
This has led to queues by motorists who have to buy within the limited time in the filling stations across the state, despite the availability of the products in some of the stations.
A visit by Voice of Liberty to some of the major stations saw some selling for between 6 and 8 hours, then shut down to sell the following day. Also, as against beginning operations as early as most the stations were known for, they now delayed till between 9:30am and 10:00am before they start operations and close between 3:00 and 5:00pm.
At Mobil Filling Station along Yakubu Gowon Way, some attendants who spoke to Voice of Liberty on condition of anonymity said the station manager cannot surpass the liter of diesel approved for it daily by the management. If the station management does that, they will pay for it. The attendant stressed that the station does not sell diesel, but buy from other stations to sell PMS.
At Shafa Filling station along Ali Akilu way, the attendants reiterated same. They said though they sell Diesel unlike others, there is a limit to what they utilised in their generation set daily to sell. If manager do over sabi and pass the limit for today, na from im pocket im go pay one of the attendants said.
Some motorists spoken to expressed their disappointment with the situation. They averred that if markets that sell same product cannot use it for long to run their business, how the government or anyone expects other consumers to sustain their businesses in the face of lack of public power supply.
They also expressed angst with the process, having queued for a long time, only to be told they have stopped selling, not because the products were not available, but because the filling stations were saving cost due to the prolong power outage that is affecting most parts of Northern Nigeria.
In some of the filling stations visited, aside having products in the under the surface tanks, there were tankers with products standing-by to offload products.
