Fakoyejo OlalekanFilling stations selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) above N165 will lose their license of operation, the Nigerian government, as its agencies commence joint inspection of retailers in Abuja.
The threat followed statement of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) regarding possible price hike due to scarcity of fuel in Abuja, Lagos and other states in the country.
The Authority Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, issued the statement to send warning to other filling stations yet to be visited.
Ahmed said the agreed pump price remains N165, and any oil company selling above it will be shutdown and sanctioned by the Nigerian government. This has been communicated to Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN).
“We are actually trying to monitor the dispensing to ensure that all the stations with petrol are dispensing all their trucks to reduce the long queues and ensure efficiency in service.” Ahmed said as his agency and Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC) conducted an inspection.
He added, “We are monitoring the depot sales also, checking the number of trucks that loaded; this is a serious fact which we look at.
“There has been a lot of improvement in the distribution of PMS; we have gone round the Airport road and saw a lot of stations selling and discharging fuel.
“The queues are not long like before and the average trucks we have received in Abuja in the last three days are about 140 trucks against 70 trucks to 80 trucks received before; so there is a lot of improvement.”
Meanwhile, the Group Executive Director, Downstream, NNPC Ltd., Adeyemi Adetunji, disclosed that the scarcity in Lagos state will be solved with distribution of new litres, followed by Abuja, “1.9 billion liters of PMS; Lagos is cleared in a couple of days; we will clear the queues in Abuja”.
It was gathered that transporters are now willing to transport the commodity following President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to increase their transportation charges by N10 to N20.46 kobo from N10.46.
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