DPR fines three filling stations N1m for hiking fuel price

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed off three filling stations in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State for selling petroleum product at N150 per litre, against the government approved pump price of N145 per litre. DPR Controller of Operations, Bassey Nkanga, who led the team monitoring sale of fuel in the filling stations across the state, fined the affected filling stations N1 million each before they would be allowed to open for business.

Nkanga wondered how filling stations in the state could take the laws into their hands by capitalising on the ignorance of the public to create artificial scarcity in order to hike pump price, insisting that the stations would pay a fine of N1million each for violating the seal order. According to him, the three affected filling stations had once been sealed off in the past by the DPR, but noted that the management of the stations were adamant and disobeyed the order to sell petrol at N145 per litre. He said: “Any marketer that is caught cheating in any form, either selling above government price or adjusting the meter will be severely sanctioned. We have been doing this in the past two weeks and already some marketers have been sanctioned.

“If you have been a serial violator of the regulations, if you pay the fine; it is not a guarantee that we will unseal your station for business to commence immediately. The level of stability in the sector is nearly 100 per cent especially in Cross River Central and South. We will try our best to sustain this tempo of surveillance activities in all outlets.