NMDPRA seals 35 Bauchi petrol stations

By Auwalu Birnin Kudu

The Bauchi office of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said it has sealed no fewer than 35 filling stations for various offences.

Alhaji Abdullahi Iliyasu, the operations controller of the agency, said this in Bauchi on Tuesday.

He said the affected stations were sanctioned for diversion, hoarding, dispensing the product by using one pump and selling in jerry cans.

“We have fined some of them and eventually unsealed them to serve as deterrence to others,” he said.

He explained that his office had in the last two weeks improved the regular supply of the commodity to various parts of the state and across the 500 registered filling stations.

The controller noted that the agency has embarked on daily patrol of existing filling stations and mounted surveillance to check and detect instances of sharp practices.

He said the improvement recorded in the supply of the product was due to the role of the strategic reserves in Kano and Plateau depots, which remained regular.

“We have tried our best to ensure that no much processing of vehicles at filling stations,” he said.

The Bauchi metropolis has been experiencing fuel scarcity due to an inadequate supply of the commodity from the depots.