Yemisi Izuora
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed Al-Ihsan oil and gas Nigeria Limited, in Ajah, Lagos over illegal operations and adulteration of diesel.
Mr Wole Akinyosoye, the Zonal Operations Controller, Lagos, who led the officials of DPR and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to the site in Lagos, said the operator had licence for road haulage and not diesel retailing.
According to the Zonal Controller, we discovered that the operator of this oil and gas site was doing an illegal business here.
“ He is blending, trans-loading, storing without an authority licence to do it. There are certain parameters for an operator to fulfill before he will be issued such licence.
“This will include safety, health and environment and other measures and we discovered that he has not fulfilled these. The owner of this site is operating an illegal business and we are going to seal it,” he said.
Akinyosoye said that the licence obtained by the operator of the site was to obtain products from depot and deposit it at filling stations or direct third party.
He said that what he was doing at the site was to get the product from depot, bring it to his facilities, blend it and sell to the public.
“What he is doing here is transshipping, storing, blending and selling of diesel product to people. When one is doing this kind of business, there is latitude for adulteration; meanwhile he did not have licence for storage.
`The permit issued by DPR to him was for road haulage, petroleum products haulage and not a transshipment licence, storage or blending licence,” he said.
The DPR controller said that the operator of the company would be made to face the wrath of law.
Also speaking, Mr Tajudeen Balogun, the Commandant, NSCDC, said there were rules and regulations for any business transactions anybody wants to do.
According to the Commandant, the operator of the oil and gas site was operating beyond what he was allowed therefore he has to face the music.
“Presently, this place is under seal and there is no way anybody can unseal it except the department. We are working in conjunction with the DPR to sanitise the sector,” he said.
However, Alhaji Muhammed Al-Ihsan, the Chairman of the company said he was operating a legal business as permitted by the management of DPR.
Al-Ihsan said that he was surprised to see the officials of DPR coming to seal his office because he was engaging in illegal businesses.
He said that it was annoying to hear them telling him that he did not have permit to store and sell diesel to its customers.
According to him, what we do here is to buy diesel from depot, store it in our storage facility before trans-loading to our peddler that use to distribute our product.
“We are not selling adulterated products here, if they have evidence, they should produce it,” he said.