Mkpoikana Udoma
03 March 2018, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt —The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has warned that it will not spare any petroleum marketers that sells premium motor spirits above the approved pump price of N145 per litre.
DPR Head of Downstream, Port Harcourt Zone, Mr. Enwuchola Emmanuel, gave the warning after leading a team of the DPR officials on a surveillance exercise of filling stations in Oyigbo and Tai Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
Emmanuel advised that filling stations who cannot get products at approved depot price to sell at approved pump price should not sell because the agency would sanction any filling station that sells fuel above N145 per litre.
He added that DPR will continue with the surveillance of filling stations as along as a hike in fuel price persist and even beyond.
According to him, “If they cannot buy and sell at N145 per litre, they should not sell, because if they continue buying, whoever that is doing the sharp practice will not want to stop.
“What people need to understand is that PMS is regulated, anything that is regulated whether the product is everywhere or not, you have to sell at the approved price, that is the law.
“The Federal Government has not increased the price of PMS, marketers should not buy above price because they want to remain in business, because if they are doing like that, it becomes an illegality and we in DPR will not close our eyes and watch, even the public will not be happy with us.”
DPR Head of Downstream, Port Harcourt Zone, Mr. Enwuchola Emmanuel, challenged the petroleum marketers who claim they buy products at depot above approved price to show proofs.
“If they lobby to get products, there is no evidence of their lobby. If they say they buy products above the approved price at the depots, there is no evidence.
“They should show us which depot they bought the products from, so we can take up the matter with the depot, but as far as there is no evidence to show, their complaints are just stories and we don’t work with stories,” the DPR Head of Downstream said.
