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Fuel scarcity subsides, stations no longer sell in jerry cans

 

The very long queues seem to be disappearing at petrol filling stations at the moment as station owners have started complying with the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) order not to sell in kegs again. However, most of these filling stations now sell at N87 per litre unlike the previous days when a litre was over N100.

ENCOMIUM Weekly’s visit to some of the filling stations on Wednesday, December 9, 2015, confirmed the new development.

We gathered from Mr. Moses, the manager of Mobil Filling Station, Agege, Lagos, at about 11.30am that they sell fuel only into vehicles at the rate of N87.

“There has not been any change in the price of fuel. We still sell at the normal price which is N87. We are not selling in kegs because we do not want to get arrested and sanctioned. The DPR gave out an order that no filling station should sell in kegs and any caught selling in kegs would be shut, so that is the order we are following.”

We went on with our findings and noticed that the queue in filling stations has reduced and it is mostly vehicles that queue to buy fuel as the filling stations were not selling in kegs.

We gathered from the manager of NNPC, Omole, Ojodu Berger, Lagos, that they sell at N87, the normal price. According to him, the queue for fuel has reduced. “The reason for the reduction of the crowd is that there has been more supply. The NNPC is pumping more fuel to filling stations. For example, it was only this filling station that was selling along this axis but now you can see two or three of them selling so people are able to go to other filling stations to get fuel.

“I know about NNPC Mega station selling at N87. To us in this place at Omole here, it is a big sin to sell in cans. Apart from the fact that government said we should not sell, we ensure that they do not sell in jerry can for safety. It is a criminal offence, moreover the task force operatives are all over the place monitoring the people that are selling into cans. If you are caught, you will be arrested and if we sell in the NNPC Mega station we will be fined N5 million, so you can see we cannot sell anyhow.

“The government said selling in jerry can is not good and it is for safety reasons and also some people that are into black market business. It is better for the people to stay alive than die because of their negligence.”

Mr. Alli, a bike man, told us that he has not been able to get fuel in keg. “I have checked some of the filling stations along this Omole axis to Berger and Ogba but they do not sell in keg, only in my bike. There was a day I bought in keg at the expressway Berger and they sold it for me at N87 per litre.”

We spoke with one Mr. Samson, who has been affected businesswise.

“I have been wanting to buy fuel in keg for three weeks now, they just tell us they cannot sell in kegs and I use generator for my business. Now that I’m not able to get fuel it is drawing my business back. I even took my car to several filling stations that at least when I buy in my car they would sell in keg for me, but they do not sell. As at now, it is only this axis probably some select filling stations on this road because yesterday, when I was coming back from the Island, I saw filling stations selling in kegs at Ikorodu coming towards Ojota and towards Ikeja but on getting here today, I heard they have arrested people that were buying in kegs. Probably, it is widespread that filling stations should not sell in kegs, the government should help us out and find a solution to this ugly situation because it is really affecting people.”

-FOLAMI DAMILOLA

Encomium

Written by Encomium

A media, tech and events company.

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