DPR Seals Three Stations for Diverting 80,000 Litres of Petrol
- Sells for free product in NNPC mega station
Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Wednesday sealed three petrol service stations for diverting about 80,000 litres of petrol supplied to them to unknown locations.
However, the DPR had before it sealed one of the stations, dispensed the petrol in it for free to motorists and other petrol seekers in accordance with an existing order on same to it by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
DPR after establishing that the outlet which is managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) not only diverted some of the product, but hoarded the remaining quantity, took the decision on the spot.
Affected station are located along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway in Suleja, Niger State and they include Zen-Hajad Filling Station, Kubewa Oil Nigeria Limited and the NNPC Mega Station situated next to Kubewa.
The Director of DPR, Mr. Modecai Ladan who spoke to reporters when he monitored the petrol supply and distribution situation in Abuja and Niger, stated that Zen-Hajad got 60,000 litres of petrol on Tuesday, but when the DPR team got to the outlet on Wednesday, no single drop of petrol was found in the filling station’s tanks.
“In the manifest from the depot yesterday (Tuesday), this station lifted about 60,000 litres of PMS as intervention to help ameliorate the crisis that we face. As part of our monitoring activity we have come to confirm if the 60,000 litres were delivered. But as you can see, nothing of such happened.
“The 60,000 litres was given to them to intervene, but they are not doing so. That means that diversion has occurred. So, we are sanctioning them right away and they will face other punitive measures,” said Ladan.
On what the sanction entails, Ladan said: “For every litre of PMS diverted, N200 is charged. So, for 60,000 litres, you can multiply that by N200. Also other statutory sanctions will follow and we are going to carry out further investigation to know if there are accomplices to this act. We decided to come here because we saw their name and figured out that this station has not been licenced to operate for over one year.”
He said on the NNPC mega station, that the outlet was involved in hoarding and diversion of about half of the 40,000 litres of petrol which it got on Tuesday as intervention.
