The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) Adamawa field office has carried out a rigorous surveillance exercise today in Yola, Adamawa State capital in order to checkmate the artificial fuel scarcity bedevilling the state.
In a chat with with newsmen shortly after visiting several filling stations in Yola and Jimeta, the Operations Controller, Adamawa field office, Eng. Sadik Danjuma Ibrahim noted that a query has been issued to two filling stations over unethical conduct.
Ibrahim who noted that the surveillance is part of the routine operations of his organization said the move is to ensure that petroleum products reached the end user.
He promised the general public that his organization will not rest on its oars until the challenge is holistically addressed.
He noted that during the exercise two filling stations have been found wanton of unthetical practices and they have been queried.
“We issued a query on A.A Salisu a dealer to MRS and we also issued a query to AK Kabo.
“For A.A Salisu, the query is that our team visited the station yesterday where we discovered 7,000 litres of PMS in the tank and a truck of 45,000 litres on standby yesterday. On getting there today, the truck was not there and the volume of product in the tank has increased to 18,000 litres. So he has to explain what happened.
“The same thing happened to the other filling station. So we query them for explanation as to what happened to the fuel that was on standby in the truck yesterday,” he said.
He noted that if they are found wanton, the erring filling stations will be charged N200 for the volume of the petroleum they hoarded.
Ibrahim noted that for now his organization is concerned in stabilizing the situation after which they will extend their activity at ensuring adequate pump measurement.
Also commenting, the chairperson of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Emanuel Fashe said the organized labour is worried about the sudden resurgence of petrol queues in the state.
He noted that worried by the situation, the organized labour joined forces with the NMDPRA to ensure an all round surveillance adding that from the activity they have ascertained that the scarcity is artificially created.
He said the organized labour who are the voices of the masses and voices of the workers usually intervene whenever there is problem especially fuel scarcity as it affects mostly workers and the general public.
“As representatives of labour and the masses, we are stakeholders in this exercise. Laying background to this visitation last week when we saw that queues have again resurfaced in filling stations in Adamawa State and owing to the fact that when we travelled to some parts of northeast we found that it is only in Adamawa state particularly the state capital that the fuel queues have resurfaced which is seemingly created artificially,” he said.
He noted that the activity has yielded the desired result as filling stations have started selling the products.
“As you can see we have been going and seeing what has transpired we can say this monitoring has yielded results because some of the filling stations hoarding have started dispensing the products.
“It is our hope the hardship being experienced by the people will be brought to an end. In the considered view of the organized labour, we are of the belief that some of the marketers in anticipation of hike in prices of petroleum products hoard the products and sell them to backmarketers,” he said.
