The Head of Downstream Monitoring Regulations of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Jos Field Office, Ahmadu Gambo Fagge, said they will continue to ensure that the fuel circulated are not adulterated with any other substance.
He assured motorists and the general public that there are no adulterated fuel in circulation as is being speculated, saying despite the fuel scarcity, which lasted for several months across the country, the fuel supplies in circulation in Jos are pure.
Speaking with newsmen during the monitoring of filling stations in Namu town of Qua’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State to ensure compliance, Fagge pointed out that there is hardly any adulterated fuel in circulation. “Since the last quarter, while carrying out our operations, including our quality assurance and quality control monitoring, we have not seen any adulterated fuel.
“But we will continue to make sure that adulterated fuel is not circulated, and we will clamp down on anybody caught doing that.”
According to him, in their quest to ensure that the fuel situation in Plateau State is stabilised, they are out to monitor filling stations in Namu town of Qua’an Pan local government area. The fuel situation in Namu is very surprising. “We found out that many stations increased their pump price, while many others are operating illegally.”
He disclosed that on sighting them, many of the filling stations shut down their operations and ran away. “Those who shut down their stations also contacted other colleagues and told them that we are in town and those colleagues also did the same thing.
“Nonetheless, we sealed many illegal filling stations, as well as those legal ones who have license to operate but were selling above the official N145 per liter. We also sealed some filing stations for hoarding the product. For instance, a filing station was yesterday supplied 40,000 liters of fuel. But on getting to his station, we were surprised to see that he was not selling the product.
So, we had to seal the station outrightly and we intend to charge him for hoarding 40,000 liters,” he said.
Fagge further said there is now availability of fuel in Plateau State and that queues have disappeared from filling stations, adding that the DPR will expand its operations across all the zones and local government areas of the state to ensure that all those in the value chain, causing artificial scarcity or sabotaging government’s effort in the oil sector, are brought to book.
