Yemisi Izuora.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has sealed three filling stations in Ibeju Lekki and Epe in Lagos for hoarding fuel and selling above pump price.
Mr Igheghe Abel, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Department who led the inspection team said that two filling station were sealed in Epe while one was sealed along Ibeju-Lekki Epe Road.
Abel said the stations were sealed for hoarding products and selling petrol at N170 per litre which was above the official pump price.
“In Epe, TAS Nigeria Ltd, were hoarding over 12,000 litres of petrol as at the time we visited the station on the pretence that their generator was faulty, But we got information from motorists that they were selling at N170 per litre, when they got wind that DPR is around they stopped selling and We have summoned them to our office in Lagos to come and tell the management why they are hoarding and selling above the official price”.
At T.Tab Global Merchant in Epe, they pretended that they did not have the stock because nobody was around to answer us, but the motorists confirmed to us that the stopped selling because of our presence in the town, “We have sealed the station as well, the dealer has been invited to our office,” he said.
Abel said that at NIPCO filling station at Kilometre 32, Ibeju-Lekki-Epe Road, the attendants were selling petrol at N170 per litre when the team arrived the station and ordered that the station be sealed for selling above the official pump price.
The dealer of the station who identify himself as a monarch of a community said he bought the product from a third party depot at N165 per litre.
“For the past three weeks we do not have the product here, so I decided to contact a third party to get the product, they sold the product at N165 per litre and I am selling it at N170, I don’t think what I am doing is bad, my people need the product, sealing the station cannot help us,” he said.
At PSG filling station along Epe Road, Austin Ibe, the operation manager said they were out of stock sinceNov. 14, “We cannot afford to buy at the depot because they are not selling at ex-depot price of N133.28 per litre, If we now decide to buy and sell above the pump price, DPR will seal the station, and this is the second month that we have been sleeping here. Government should help us so that the product should circulate,” he said.
At Epe, Abel ordered most of the filling stations with petrol a little above the desktop level to sell to motorists to ease the problem