The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday said the trucks conveying Premium Motor Spirit were being diverted to Cameroon and Chad, The Punchreports.

Kachikwu, who stated this in Lagos at a town hall meeting, said the fuel scarcity had persisted mainly because the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) could not track any of the trucks being used to convey the product to filling stations across the country.

Kachikwu however, said his ministry was working towards installing trackers on each truck and registering the depots and filling stations they were meant to supply in a bid to curb diversion of the product.

Kachikwu also noted that the NNPC had largely dealt with the shortfall in supply resulting from subsidy debt to the marketers and foreign exchange scarcity, and had, by itself, substantially improved supply of products. He, however, described this as a short-term solution, saying the private sector “needs to drive this business… because ultimately, without doing that, we are never going to find a solution to this problem.”