The
Ibadan field office of the Department of Petroleum Resources, which
controls Oyo and Osun states, has sealed about 100 petrol filling
stations across the two states in a weeklong exercise aimed at
penalising marketers who sell petrol above the official pump price of
N87 per litre.
Apart from selling above the regulated
price, the management of the affected filling stations were also accused
of diversion of petroleum products, tampering with meters and other
sharp practices.
Some of the filling stations shut in
Ibadan and Osogbo are Agape Energy, Femson
Petroleum, S.T. Akpata
Petroleum, Taska Energy Resources, Mallo Petroleum, Hamzat Oil, BK
Petroleum, Mubilat Oil and Prolek Oil.
The Operations Controller, Ibadan field
office, DPR, Mr. Olakunle Ogunlana, who led the team around the Ibadan
metropolis on Thursday, explained that the move became imperative in
view of the excesses of some fuel marketers who engaged in dubious
activities that raised the price of petrol and frustrated the
government’s effort at making the product available to the people.
Earlier in the day, our correspondent
observed that many filling stations in Ibadan, which perhaps got
information that the DPR was carrying out an inspection, began to sell
the product at N87 per litre instead of the previous rate of between
N100 and N120 per litre.
After the exercise, Ogunlana said, “The
intention is to ensure that petrol filling stations sell at the normal
government approved price. Petrol is available in the country and the
government is doing enough to make sure that the product is never in
short supply across the country, but some marketers will not just sell
at the approved price as a result of greed.”
"Culled from PUNCH NG" http://punchng.com
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