“The fact that president Muhammadu Buhari is the substantive minister of petroleum resources makes it pathetic, insensitive and dangerous that he has permitted the unwarranted mass hysteria, pains and suffering of Nigerians struggling to buy premium motor spirit to linger on for over two weeks.

“It is even the more a threat to national security that president Buhari did not implement result oriented panacea to the fuel crisis before he jetted off to foreign jurisdiction on medical tourism for God knows for how long he intends to stay away”.

Civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) made these observations in a media statement issued by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator, and Zainab Yusuf, the National Media Publicity Affairs Director.

The group said President Muhammadu Buhari has taken the patience of millions of Nigerians for granted by allowing wicked and lawless major petroleum dealers to sabotage the citizens by persistently hoarding petroleum products and openly selling only to thugs and street urchins at night who then return to the streets of Abuja and other flash points to sell the same petrol at over N500 perlitre to desperate motorists and small scale businesses who are at the verge of losing their business due to the unrelenting scarcity.

HURIWA lamented that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) did not follow through with its promises to check and stop the disturbing petrol scarcity and has now being overwhelmed by the antics of shylock major fuel distributors.

“We had consistently endorsed the decision of the management of the NNPC to expose the companies responsible for importing toxic fuel into Nigeria and we also applauded the NNPC for promising to end the scarcity and indeed for two days.

“The scarcity seemed to be ending, but the mafia who do not want Nigerians to seamlessly buy petrol for their domestic and commercial uses have since overwhelmed the NNPC and right now, for over a week, the scarcity of petroleum has become unbearable and it would seem that President Buhari has taken the patience of the people for granted by travelling without officially handing over to his vice president in line with constitutional requirement so the vice president, working as Acting President, can implement far reaching  measures to stop the widening spectre of man-made fuel scarcity all around Nigeria.”

HURIWA has also warned the government that since the suffering masses are getting closer to the limits of their endurance, fuel scarcity may precipitate street protests and riots which may be justifiable under these circumstances.