AMID sharp practices by fuel stations operators and the continued scarcity of petrol, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Warri Zonal Office said it had sanctioned five erring petrol stations in Delta.
The Warri Zonal Operations Controller, Mr Antai Asuquo, disclosed this on Wednesday to journalists in Warri.
He said many marketers were compelled to dispense at the government-approved pump price of N145 per litre.
The controller said the erring stations were sealed in Asaba and Kwale, the administrative headquarters of Ndokwa West Local Government Area on Tuesday.
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He said that the retail outlets were sealed for hoarding and abandoning their stations on sighting the DPR officials, just as he added that the surveillance would be a continuous process.
Asuquo said that three petrol stations were sealed in Asaba while the other two were sanctioned in Kwale by the surveillance team who were in two groups.
“We observed that most stations were not selling in Asaba and Kwale, however, some of those selling, maybe they got a wind that we were around and they started selling at N145 per litre.
” In all the stations we visited, we spent about one hour each and make sure they sell to customers at the government approved pump price of N145, and we leave a team behind to follow-up on the surveillance.
“Sadly, most of the retail outlets do not have the product, some that have product quickly close businesses claiming they do not have.
“We asked for the underground storage to be made available for us to confirm they do not have the product as they claim, we have sealed them and given them assertion notification.
“The Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) remains a regulated product and the price is N145.
“The marketers have their complaint but the Petroleum Product Marketing Company imports and sells the product to the deport owners at the regulated price of N133.28k per litres.
“It is not our intention to seal petrol stations that have products, the products are to be sold to the public at the government approved pump price.
“If marketers know that cannot sell at the approved price of N145 to customers, they should not buy because DPR will come after them,” he advised.
Asuquo expressed displeasure over the attitude of the public saying that the surveillance teams were not getting the needed cooperation from the consumers in terms of information sharing.
“Sometimes we enter some petrol stations and the customers will say they are buying at N145 but from the queue, you will know that it is not true but we cannot seal such stations,” he said.
The DPR boss, therefore, appealed to the marketers and the general public to avail the regulatory agency useful and accurate information in order to arrest the trend for the good of all.
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