DPR seals petrol station for selling above official price

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March 2, 2018 4:10 PM

The operational controller of DPR, Yenagoa, Mrs Ejiro Ufondu, who led a team on inspection, also forced some other filling stations to sell to customers at N145.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Yenagoa, on Friday sealed a filling station, Sombaz Oil, located in Akenfa, along Yenagoa-Mbiama Expressway in Bayelsa, for dispensing petrol above the government approved price of N145 per litre.

Ufondu said the reason behind the sealing of Sombaz filling station was that the meters indicated that the product was being sold at the rate of N180 per litre instead of N145.

“The law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as at today, fixed the price of petrol at N145 per litre for independent marketers and N143 per litre for NNPC stations and affiliates.

“No filling station has the right to tamper with their meters; any station that does that is going against the law, and such station will be penalised,” she stated.

The DPR team was on routine inspection of filling stations in the state to ensure compliance and guard against sharp practices among the marketers.

The officials cautioned workers at several stations where the meters had been adjusted below the normal standard and made them adjust them appropriately.

Ufondu threatened to revoke the license of any sealed filling station that continues to sell the product, and any other found to have short-changed Nigerians in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that officials of Sombaz Oil refused to comment after the petrol station was sealed.

NAN also reports that most of the filling stations in the state sell petrol at prices ranging from N180 to N200 per litre, with their meters still read N145.

A cab driver, Emmanuel Binawori, urged officials of DPR to monitor all the filling stations to ensure compliance by marketers.

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