Angry motorists on Sunday staged a peaceful protest at the NNPC Mega Station along the Western Bypass in Minna, Niger State, over the prolonged unavailability of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The protesters told The Voice that they had been unable to access CNG for about three months despite spending substantial amounts to convert their vehicle engines from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to the more affordable and environmentally friendly alternative.
They expressed frustration that the persistent shortage had defeated the purpose of converting their vehicles to CNG, forcing them to return to the more expensive petrol and increasing their transportation costs.
Findings indicated that a component of the CNG dispensing machine at the station had developed a fault and had allegedly remained unattended, leaving motorists in Minna without an alternative source of supply.
One of the protesters, Engr. Israel Ogbonnaya, said motorists had visited the station several times to seek explanations but had received no satisfactory response.
He said, “It is so discouraging that, for three months now, the CNG station at NNPC Minna has not been functioning. Some people carried out the conversion in January and have yet to recover their money.
“The CNG facility broke down, and nobody has spoken to us. We have come here several times demanding answers from the management, but nobody is talking.”
Ogbonnaya said the protest was intended to draw the attention of the authorities and Nigerians to the situation, stressing that the continued failure of the facility undermined the Federal Government’s drive to promote CNG as a cheaper alternative to petrol.
Another protester, Mohammed Doko Saidu, questioned the rationale behind promoting vehicle conversion to CNG without ensuring adequate facilities were available to meet motorists’ needs across the states.
He said he had spent over one million naira converting his vehicle but had been unable to access gas in Minna.
“The frustrating aspect is that I just installed CNG, spending over a million naira, without a single supply of gas in Minna. We kept hoping it would be fixed today or tomorrow, but up till this moment, nothing has happened.
“Nobody is saying anything, and the station is just lying fallow. I had to disconnect some of the cylinders installed in my car because there is no gas. It is frustrating,” he said.
The protesters called on the station’s management and relevant authorities to urgently repair the faulty equipment and restore CNG supply to ease the financial burden on affected motorists.
They warned that failure to address the situation could trigger another protest involving a larger number of aggrieved vehicle owners, including commercial tricycle operators who rely on CNG.
Efforts to obtain comments from the manager of the NNPC Mega Station were unsuccessful at press time, as attendants on duty declined to speak on behalf of the management.
