By Harris-Okon Emmanuel,Whirlwind News
No fewer than six fuel
filling stations got bitter doses on Thursday in Warri, when the Department Of
Petroleum Resources, DPR, sealed them for alleged hoarding of
petroleum products.
This happened as some
filling stations were forced to dispense fuel to the public at N80 per litre
for under dispensing to the public.
The filling stations
which came under DPR’s sledge hammers included, Mobil filing station by Warri
Garage, Frankies Concern Ltd, Jeroh Petroleum Ltd, J. Tamah NIG. Ltd, Pagson
Motors NIG Ltd, all in Udu road, Orogun Brothers Ltd and NNPC, both at
Orhovwhorun road.
But this was not without
a drama when DPR discovered that the defaulting stations had stocks but refused
to sell to the public and ordered that the fuel should be given out gratis, a
development which brought jubilations.
But in a bid to play a
fast one on DPR the filling station’s manager switched off their generating set
and alleged that they had run out of fuel, an act that infuriated the DPR
personnel and led to the sealing of the station.
Head of Operations
Upstream Department, DPR, Mr. Obukororo Ovadje, explained that the exercise was
imperative because of the hardship being faced by the public in the bid to get
products, and also ensure that the marketers sold the product at the regulated
pump price.
He stated that some of
the stations were sealed because the marketers abandoned their filling stations
and took to their heels when they discovered that they (DPR) were coming,
stressing that they had to seal them up as there was no way to check if they
had products or not.
Stating that the exercise
would be spread across the strata of the state, he vowed that any marketer
found wanting will face stiff sanction.
For his part, Head of
Public Affairs Unit, Mr. Agusa Goddey said the exercise was warning to other
marketers to sit up as the DPR was poised to work for the interest of
Nigerians.
.“We checked their pump
and we saw that their pump was under dispensing to the tone of 11.35, which
means that for every 10 litres you buy they are cheating you with about 1.3
litres. For that reason we ordered that the pump should be adjusted and they
should be selling for N80 to make for the difference, which they have
complied,” he said.
He denied
allegations that the DPR was conniving with the marketers to cause the
artificial scarcity, saying that ‘’DPR staff are well disciplined and can
never be involved in such act’’.
Reacting to the
DPR’s directive , Manager of Conoil filling station, Mr. Lawrence Oshevire,
blamed the under dispensing by his station on mechanical failure
and pledged to service the machines immediately.
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