OpeOluwani Akintayo
10 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR’s task force visited depots in Lagos on Thursday in a bid to clamp down on hoarding of fuel by depot owners.
Led by the Zonal Operations Controller Lagos, Mr. Wole Akinyosoye, the team also made a surveillance visit to Jetties in Lagos for adequate petroleum distribution across the country.
The department began shutting down of erring petrol stations across the country for hoarding fuel and selling at higher prices other than N145 per litre as stipulated by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
As at December, it penalised and shut down a petrol station belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC over hoarding of about 40, 000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS.
The affected NNPC-franchise filling station is located around Trans-Woji-Slaughter Road area of Port Harcourt.
Two other filling stations, EBZ and Oando were also handed penalty notices for selling above official pump price of N145 and under-dispensing fuel to consumers.
Fuel scarcity lingers despite several resounding assurances by the NNPC of having enough stock to keep the country “wet”.
On January 25, the Senate issued a seven-day deadline to NNPC to end ongoing fuel scarcity across the country however, the ultimatum has had no effect on the crisis.
The ultimatum came after NNPC’s Group General Manager, Maikanti Baru sounded an alarm on activities of fuel truck diverters and smugglers who, according to him, have made it difficult to guarantee round-the-clock availability of petrol throughout the country due to the massive leakages wrought on the fuel supply and distribution network by the smugglers.
