By Akinwale Kasali

The groaning of Nigerians over the unavailability of Petrol and hike in the prices of the commodity seems to be coming to an end following the 48-Hours ultimatum given by the Department of State Services, DSS, to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC, and Oil Marketers to make the commodity available to Nigerians.

Peter Afunanya, DSS Spokesman, had given the directive while briefing journalists at the headquarters of service in Abuja after a closed-door meeting with stakeholders in the petroleum sector.

The DSS had said that failure to comply, it will activate its operations across the country.

According to Afunanya, the challenge of fuel scarcity has assumed a dimension that is detrimental to the security of the country.

He said during the meeting, the NNPC agreed that there is enough product that will serve Nigerians during and after the Yuletide season.

It would be recalled that for several weeks now, motorists and vehicle owners in the country, especially in Lagos, which is the commercial Hub of the country and in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja and others States in the country have had a tough time getting petrol from filling stations.

Whilst many outlets are closed, the few ones that are open sell the indispensable commodity for as high as N250 to N300 per litre from the uniform price of N169/litre.

The shortage of supply has led to long, grueling snake-like queues at the few open filling stations as motorists and business owners jostle to buy fuel while others resort to black market.

The situation has also worsen traffic on major roads as vehicle owners block at least one lane to join queues to filling stations.

Nigerians has however hailed the directives of the DSS saying that there are saboteurs within the NNPC and Oil Marketers who find joy in making Nigerians go through hell and tough time to access the commodity.