DPR Sets 24 Hours Surveillance to Control Current Fuel Crisis
By Channels on 25/12/2009
Views: 444 | Comments: 0
The Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources [DPR], Mr. Billy Agha said in Abuja, the nation's capital city that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia has ordered 24 hours surveillance by the DPR and has constituted control centres in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Warri, Owerri, Calabar, Kaduna and Maiduguri.
Mr. Agha said that henceforth, sale of fuel in containers and plastic containers called jerry cans is banned and that culprits would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
He said: "The DPR has been on top of the situation to ensure that the queues that we find all around are cleared in a matter of days. The selling of fuel into jerry cans is hereby banned. Both seller and the buyer would be arrested, detained and consequently prosecuted. Any fuel station caught hoarding any petroleum product would be dealt with by complete auction of the products while monies realised there would be paid into Federal Government coffers."
He also warned that any station found rationing products would be deemed to be engaging in hoarding, saying such action is viewed to be counter productive by the Federal Government and would therefore be punished severely.
"No filling station should get involved in rationing of their sales to motorists as this is deemed to be systematic hoarding, unpatriotic and counter productive. Such action would attract a sanction of sealing off the station and the product channelled to other stations willing to sell. Secondly, further allocations meant for such stations would be redirected to other stations to serve as a deterrent to other stations," Agha cautioned.
Mr. Agha disclosed this yesterday while on an on-the-spot assessment of fuel supply situation in Abuja city centre.
The DPR boss asked Major and Independent Marketers to work together to address the current problem stressing that the agency is on a surveillance tour of filling stations across the country to ensure smooth supply of petroleum products.
He explained that to ensure availability of fuel, most of the DPR staff had been deployed to the field to monitor distribution and that they would not go on holiday till the situation was completely brought under control.
He also noted the harrowing experiences that Nigerians who wished to travel but has no fuel but however, expressed the hope that the new measures would ensure a speedy return of normalcy.
Mr. Agha said that the Minister's directive has prompted the DPR to clamp down on the menace being experienced at filling stations such as selling of Petrol also known as Premium Motor Spirit [PMS] in jerry cans, way/street peddling, restricted sale of fuel at the filling stations to the public, as well as hoarding.
According to the Director, the country is in a state of emergency with the ongoing fuel crisis, noting that marketers are embarking on sharp practices to swindle the public by selling PMS at above the official price of N65 a litre.
"We are in a state of emergency now as you can see that the Federal Government is worried with the ongoing fuel crisis in the country. It is because of this situation that the Minister of State, Odein Ajumogobia has ordered us to embark on 24-hour monitoring activities at the filling stations in the country. So, the DPR has constituted itself to a 24-hour surveillance team.
Hitherto, we do only 24 hours in the terminals where we have fuel loading and also in the rig, where we have drilling operations. But on the land where we work in normal office hours, we go out to monitor what is going on in the filling station. But with this new directive, any DPR person(s) is authorised to walk into the filling station, be it at the middle of the night if he noticed anything going wrong and then report the matter to the Department. If he cannot deal with the situation decisively and he cannot get across to the Police as soon as possible, then, what will happen is that we will mark the filling station and the next day report appropriately to the police," Mr. Agha said.
Meanwhile, in Lagos, south-west Nigeria there were queues of motorists at various filling stations with PMS being sold between N100 and N120 a litre above the official price of N65 a litre.
Reports have it that the Petroleum Resources Minister, Alhaji Rilwan Lukman yesterday, December 24 left Abuja for Vienna, Austria for the Christmas and New Year vacation, effectively ruling himself out of the meetings scheduled by the Vice President Goodluck Jonathan for tackling the lingering fuel crisis.
Vice President Jonathan had at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council [FEC] on Wednesday, December 23 directed Lukman along with two ministers who are the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola to suspend their Christmas and New Year vacations to enable them all stay within Abuja and find a solution to the fuel crisis in the country.
Source Channels
Posted by afamcart on 27/12/2009 3:17:07 PM