Watching a news report about an incident you personally witnessed can be unsettling when the account presented leaves out circumstances that materially change its meaning. That was my experience when I saw News Central’s post about queues and alleged bribery at the NNPC filling station in Zone 1, Abuja.
The post, published on October 9, 2026, describes commercial drivers seeking cheaper petrol and features a driver alleging that some motorists paid bribes to bypass the queue. I was at the station during the incident involving that driver. My car was directly behind his, and I believe the public should hear the sequence of events I witnessed.
I had driven to the station to refill my vehicle with compressed natural gas, commonly known as CNG. While we waited in the queue, some military and paramilitary vehicles arrived. Station personnel allowed them to proceed ahead of the waiting vehicles to obtain CNG.
Their refuelling took some time. During the wait, the driver subsequently featured in the interview asked a station attendant to allow him to bypass the queue as well. The attendant refused, explaining that the access was reserved for the military vehicles.
An argument followed. The station attendant and other people came to intervene and asked the driver to leave the queue to prevent further disruption. This interaction is central to understanding the incident, yet it is absent from the caption accompanying the interview.
During the incident I witnessed, I did not see anyone pay a bribe to obtain access. I saw military vehicles receive priority, followed by a dispute when another driver sought similar access and was refused.
My account is limited to what I personally observed. I cannot speak for every transaction at the station or determine what happened before my arrival. Equally, an allegation made in an interview should not become a substitute for establishing the circumstances of a specific incident.
News Central should seek a response from the station’s manager, or other queue awaiters, before going on an unethical publication to get a clarified information, and not misleading the public. Such airing of an interview might have a negative effect on NNPC, a very reputable market serving Nigerians over the years.
Prince Tijani Dauda writes as a motorist and eyewitness to the incident described.
NNPC Zone 1: An Eyewitness Account of the Incident Behind News Central’s Report
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