Tony Edike
16 january 2012, Sweetcrude, ENUGU – FUEL dealers in Enugu yesterday turned down the directive by President Goodluck Jonathan to reduce pump price of petrol to N97 per litre.
Apart from the NNPC Mega station that complied with the new price regime immediately it was announced yesterday, major and independent marketers in the state declined as they continued to sell fuel at between N165 and N170 per litre.
Most stations owned by major marketers remained shut throughout yesterday even as their dispensing pumps still read N141.50.
Only stations operated by members of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN had fuel which they have consistently sold at cut-throat prices.
Some operators interviewed claimed that the products they had were procured after the removal of subsidy and as such could not sell at the new pump price.
Some residents interviewed grumbled over the exploitative tendencies of Enugu fuel marketers who have the culture of disobeying government’s directive on pricing of petroleum products.
They said that unless the marketers were forced to comply, they would continue to sell above the approved pump price under the flimsy excuse that new product procured at the new rate was yet to arrive the state.
They however asked officials of Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR in the state to enforce the directive of the President without delay in order to reduce the hardship which the masses had experienced on account of the fuel subsidy crisis.
It would be recalled that the operators adjusted their pump prices upward few minutes after the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory
Committee, PPPRC, announced withdrawal of subsidy on January 1.
