Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
As part of efforts to stop overpricing petrol and manipulation of metering devices, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR),Bauchi State has sealed off 10 filling stations in the state capital and Azare town for illegally increasing the pump price of the petroleum product.
Bauchi state Comptroller of the department, Engineer Abdullahi Iliyasu placed the stations under seal Wednesday during a patrol and enforcement drive on errant filing stations he led in parts of the state.
According to him, many of the sealed stations sell petroleum over the approved N162 per litre price noting that the rest were shut down due to safe issues.
According to him, “Last week we had serious problem of price hike in Bauchi and government has not increased the price of petroleum products. So we have a directive from the zonal comptroller that all of them must revert to the N162 per litre pump price.
“So since that time, we have been going round to ensure that all of them comply. Some of them are selling at N170 per litre. So we are going to penalise them. They will pay fine before we unseal their stations”.
He lamented that “Some of them have safety issues. Their fire extinguishers expired. There is evidence that they are operating in an unsafe condition. We have to seal them to make sure that they are put in order”.
The DPR comptroller explained that the sealed stations would be charged a fine of N100, 000 per pump urging all fuel stations operators in the state to go to the department and get licences.
“The mandate of the DPR is to monitor all petroleum products like LPG, lubricating oil and PMS”. He said. END