7th February, 2018
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed three petrol stations in Cross River for allegedly diverting three trucks of fuel meant to be sold in the state.
Mr Bassey Nkanga, DPR Operations Controller in charge of Cross River, who led his team on an intensified surveillance on fuel stations on Wednesday, said the stations were sealed for violating government directives.
The stations include: Conoil in Calabar, Dandy Oil in Obudu Local Government and Willis Oil in Kastina-Ala road in Ogoja Local Government.
Bassey said that the intensified surveillance was carried out to ensure that the product released from the depot is sold to the public at the government approved price of N145 per litre.
According to him, long queues in most fuel stations across the state had reduced due to increase in the supply of Petrol in the state.
“If the supply is consistent within the next few days, there will be no queue again. We are intensifying efforts to ensure that the product is available for sale at the stipulated price.
“We have sealed three petrol stations for diversion of three trucks of fuel; two were sealed in northern Cross River and one in Calabar.
“Since the fuel stations lifted the product from the depot yesterday, some of them are claiming that the truck broke down on the way.
“We have given them 24 hours to report back to us, and if they fail to do so, we will conclusively deduce that they have diverted the product and we will apply sanctions accordingly.
“If any marketer who divert the product will pay N200 fine on each litre diverted, if it is a whole truck, the marketer will pay N6million and those selling above government price will pay N100,000 as fine respectively’’, he said.
The DPR Controller urged motorists and other users of the product not to buy and store petrol in their houses for safety purpose.
He added that the government was doing everything possible to bring back normalcy in petroleum product supply.
“I wish to appeal to the general public to have faith in the government because efforts are on to ensure availability of the product across the country’’, he said.