The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Ogun, on Saturday,
sealed off six petrol stations and arrested four persons in
the state.
The DPR made the arrests for fuel hoarding, under-dispensing,
sabotage, obstruction of justice and installation of commercial gas
cylinders without approval.
All the affected petrol stations were found to have more than enough
of the commodity but refused to sell it to the public.Some buyers, who
spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), accused the station owners
of selling fuel at night above the pump price of N145.
“They only sell at night and they sell for N200 per litre,” one of the buyers in Ota, Ogun, who pleaded anonymity, said.
A mild drama, however, ensued at one of the filling stations along
Ilaro expressway, as the attendants and the manager fled upon sighting
the DPR officials and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence
Corps (NSCDC).
The DPR Head of Operations, Mr Kasali Akinade, led the surveillance team to the stations.
Akinade said that the exercise became necessary after receiving the
information that some filling stations were hoarding, under-dispensing
and selling above the pump price.
“We are aware that some filling stations are either hoarding or
selling above the pump price; as high as N180 or N200 per litre, which
is against the government price policy of N145.
“When we see any filling station, either hoarding or not selling,
what we do is to order them to start selling at the approved pump
price,” he said.
Kasali, who decried the artificial scarcity created by the filling
stations, added that the arrests made were due to the uncooperative
attitude of those arrested.
“Normally in a situation like this, we didn’t want to make any
arrest, but just to ask them to sell, however, some of them were not
willing to cooperate with us.
“When we asked them to start selling, they put off the engine; that
is, the electric generator, which is against government policy.
‘‘This country is blessed with petroleum and the good people of Nigeria are not supposed to be denied the use of the resources.
Meanwhile, the Zonal Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC, Mr Kareem
Olarenwaju, explained that those arrested were caught hoarding fuel and
selling above pump price.
He said, “four were arrested for their role in hoarding fuel and some
were also guilty of breach of peace; one of them obstructed us for a
long time”.
Olarenwaju revealed that those arrested would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
‘‘They may be made to pay normal fine to the DPR, otherwise, they will be charged to court,” he said.
Other filling stations visited that were hitherto not selling fuel
prior to the DPR’s arrival, were forced to sell at the official pump
price.
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