Mega Station not Sealed off, Says NNPC

By Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has denied the report that its mega station at Secretariat Junction in Jos was sealed off for under-dispensing, noting that the station was not sealed but a faulty pump which was actually awaiting repairs.

Disclosing this in an interview with THISDAY in Jos, the Station Manager, Mr. Alexander Bot, said: “When Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) came and sealed one of our pumps, they sanctioned us, and asked us to pay a fine. In such situations, we are supposed to reply to their sanction before even paying the fine. So, we wrote a reply and explained to them that the said pump was faulty and awaiting repairs; it was not in use.

“The fact is that we had told our engineers to come and rectify it. We have some registered engineers that work for us; they cover the whole of the North, and they had travelled when the pump became faulty. So we were not dispensing fuel with it when the DPR came on inspection. As soon as the engineers came back, they rectified it, and we notified the DPR, who came, inspected it, and unsealed it.

“And because we have given satisfactory explanation, we didn’t have to pay any fine for the seal to be removed. First, it is not true that the entire station was sealed, and we were not selling with the pump.”

The station manager also assured the people that the station has the capacity in terms of sufficient fuel to take care of the challenges that may arise from fuel scarcity, adding that the station receives an average of three trucks per day.

He added that the general economic challenge has affected the purchasing power of customers’ who now buy less, “and this is not peculiar to Plateau”.