Minna motorists protest three-month CNG shortage at NNPC station
- Vehicle owners in Minna staged a peaceful protest at the NNPC Mega Station on the Western Bypass.
- They say CNG has not been dispensed there for three months despite costly engine conversions.
- The station's manager could not be reached, and attendants declined to comment.
Motorists in Minna, the Niger State capital, took their frustration to the NNPC Mega Station on the Western Bypass on Sunday, protesting that Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has not been available there for three months.
The vehicle owners carried placards and called on the station's management and the authorities to restore supply. Vanguard reported that the protest was peaceful.
Many of the motorists said they had paid to convert their engines from petrol, known as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), to CNG because it is cheaper. With no gas to buy, they said, the savings they counted on have not come, and they are back to buying the more expensive petrol.
What the motorists say
One of them, Israel Ogbonnaya, told Vanguard that some people converted their vehicles as far back as January and have not recovered the cost. He said the station had been down for three months and that repeated visits for answers had brought none.
Another motorist, Mohammed Doko Saidu, said he spent over a million naira to install CNG, only to find no gas in Minna. He said he had to disconnect some of the cylinders fitted in his car because there was nothing to fill them with.
Vanguard reported that a component of the station's CNG dispensing machine developed a fault and was left unattended, leaving motorists with CNG engines across the state capital with no option but petrol.
The protesters said they want the station's management and other stakeholders to fix the problem quickly. They warned that another protest, with a larger crowd including commercial tricycle operators who run on CNG, could follow if nothing changes.
What happens next
The manager of the NNPC Mega Station could not be reached for comment, according to Vanguard, and attendants on duty declined to speak for management. There was no word on when the faulty dispenser would be repaired.
The director of the Niger State Ministry of Transport, Muhammad Abdullah, told Vanguard on Sunday that the protest was not a matter for the ministry but for the NNPC. He said the ministry's own CNG plans had not yet taken off and were still being worked on.
For now, motorists in Minna who converted their cars to save money on fuel are paying more to keep them on the road, and transport costs in the city could rise as a result.
