The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Northwest Zonal office Kaduna on Thursday warned petroleum marketers against under dispensing, hoarding and selling petrol above government approved pump price of N165 per litre.
The Zonal Operations Controller Kaduna, Malam Ahmed Rufa’i Shakuru, whose operation covers Northwest states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara, gave the warning in his office after carrying out surveillance of filling stations in Kaduna.
Shakur said defaulting oil marketers risk sanction, even as he stated that the current fuel scarcity situation in Kaduna state was as result of panic buying by motorists or the location of filing stations across the state. He added that there was no need for panic buying as there was enough petrol to serve the state and even the zone.
According to him, the agency will not hesitate to sanction any filing station for offences ranging from hoarding to under dispensing of the product.
He also assured residents that the DPR was doing everything possible to ensure petrol was available in every part of the state in order to clear the long queue in parts of the state.
“We are in a regulated regime. However, there is approved price for Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and that’s why our men are out since Monday to ensure compliance with the approved government price and the second thing we are after during our surveillance outing is quality control.
“We have to ensure that the product that are being sold to members of the public are genuine. We don’t want adulterated products to be sold to members of the public. For us in our operational areas we have been on top of the game and that is why we have very little incidences of queue and even where you have such queues is as result of panic buying and maybe location of the filling stations.
“Other than that our operations have been smooth and we want to assure members of the public that our men will be on duty everyday of the week and even after the pressure is less, we will still be on spot checks to make sure that members of the public are not defrauded. We solicit for your continued support on our efforts to clear the queues in the filling stations,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DPR officials carried out surveillance around Kaduna metropolis to ensure strict compliance with the regulated pump price of N165 per litre, check the availability of products, and ensure marketers are not hoarding products to avoid scarcity of fuel across the state.
