Nigerian airlines cancel fights amid fuel crisis

LAGOS :

Nigerian airlines grounded flights
and  radio stations were silenced
as a months-long fuel shortage
aggravated by striking oil tanker
drivers worsened in Africa's biggest
oil producer.

Vehicles also grounded ,Normally
bustling roads in Lagos ,a metropolis
of 20 million,were half -empty and
gas  stations  closed Saturday,one
station owner said he had fuel but
strikers are threatening to set fire to
any stations selling it
He insisted on anonymity  for fear of
reprisals,

Police were arresting back marketers
selling fuel at  roadsides at four times
the regulated 87naira a litre

Chaos reigned at bus stations where
vehicles stood idle and at Lagos "Muratala
Muhammad International Airport as one
flight after another was cancelled

Passengers said that Air France and
Kenya Airways flights diverted to Dakar
Senegal and Cotonou,Benin, to refuel
on their way to Paris an Nairobi because
no fuel was available in Lagos this week

Nigeria produces more than 2million barrels
of petroleum a day but imports refined fuel
because it dose not have enough functioning
refineries. It regularly suffers fuel shortages
but nothing as severe as the current country
wide crisis.

The crisis started weeks before the March
29 elections,with oil  suppliers hit by
tightened credit lines amid halved international
oil prices,slump in the naira curency,and
unpaid government debts the suppliers
claimed amount to nearly$1 billion.