Motorists in Lagos on Thursday lauded the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for its intervention by compelling petrol dealers hoarding the product to dispense to motorists.
They gave the commendation during the inspection tour of DPR officials led by Mr Musa Tambawal, the Head of Operations, Lagos Zonal Office, to some filling stations in Lagos and its environs.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that some of the filling stations visited by DPR team included Mobil and MRS filling stations in Victoria Island, MRS, Ascon, Oando and Conoil on Muritala Muhammed Way in Ebute-Meta, Lagos.
NAN reports that DPR officials had in the wake of scarcity of petrol embarked on monitoring and enforcement visit to some filling stations in the state.
Some of the motorists, who spoke with NAN, expressed gratitude to the management of DPR for compelling the dealers in all filling stations to dispense the product to motorists.
In his comments, Mr Wale Adeyemi, a commercial bus driver, alleged, “the filling stations in this area had in the last three days refused to sell fuel in their underground tanks.
“These stations only opened to buyers who came with jerry cans in the evening hours and sold the product to them at exorbitant price.
“The presence of DPR officials here has changed things for us, otherwise, they would not sell the product to us. We were forced to journey to Apapa everyday to get the product,” Adeyemi said.
Another motorist, Mrs Chinyere Okoro, said that a friend informed her of the presence of DPR in the filling station, which encouraged her to leave her to come to the station.
“I urge the regulators to constantly be on guard against the nefarious and fraudulent acts of these marketers and dealers, who often hoard the product.
“These stations would have shut their gates immediately after the inspection visit of DPR officials,
“This dealers and marketers are not fair to the masses, who are desperately in need of petrol for their daily activities,” Okoro said.
Tambawal, while reacting, called on marketers to shun this illicit act of hoarding petrol or face penalties.
According to him, there are lots of insinuations that filling stations are refusing to sell petrol to motorists and other users of this product.
“As you can see, some stations are storing more than the minimum dead stock level. Deadstock is the level at which the product can no longer be dispensed.
“We are going to ensure that Nigerians are not defrauded. It is also important for us to manage the supply to ensure that it gets to our consumers.
“If we find any station engaging in sharp practices, the arm of the law will be used on the defaulter,” Tambawal said.
NAN
