Economic and social activities in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, and its environs, have been paralysed, following the scarcity of petrol in many filling stations, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

NAN correspondent, who visited several filling stations yesterday, reports that vehicle owners, especially commercial vehicle drivers, spent several hours at filling stations to buy fuel.

At some filling stations, where the product was available, there were long queues of vehicles and motorcycles; there were fewer vehicles on the roads. Many commuters, including school children and students in tertiary institutions, were at bus stops and other locations, waiting for vehicles.

Many commuters resorted to trekking to their destinations as the effects of the fuel scarcity worsened. An independent petroleum marketer in Ilorin, Alhaji Abdul-Kareem Sanni, described the lingering fuel scarcity as unfortunate.

He attributed the situation to unavailability of the commodity at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot at Oke Oyi in Ilorin. Sanni called for the deregulation of the sub-sector to make fuel available at all times.

The petroleum dealer described as economic waste the payment of N413 billion petrol subsidy to marketers when fuel was not readily available.

Efforts to speak with the Operations Controller at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Kwara, Mr Philips Salvation, were unsuccessful. NAN reports that the Federal Government approved the immediate payment of N413 billion to oil marketers as outstanding payment for subsidy claims.

This is contained in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday signed by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation's Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Ohi Alegbe. NNPC said it had stepped up measures to eliminate the noticeable fuel queues in some petrol stations across some major cities in the country.