The Department of Petroleum Resources has sealed off 30 filling stations in Cross River State for selling petrol above the officially approved price of N145 per litre and other offences.
Three suspects were also arrested for various offences but were later released after writing an undertaking to stick to the DPR guidelines.
The Operations Controller, DPR in Cross River State, Mr Philip Awolu, stated this on Sunday in Calabar following the state-wide surveillance led by the Head of Operations in Calabar, Mr SirCham Musa-Mohammed.
According to Awolu, the filling stations were sealed off for cheating members of the public in violation of the rules guiding the operations in the petroleum sector.
He said no marketer had the right to hike the pump prices of petroleum products in the state no matter the distance from where the products were lifted.
Awolu stated, “Our team visited a total of 82 filling stations; 30 were sealed off and out of that number, 12 have paid the fine of N100,000 each.
“Any station that is selling above the pump price will be sealed off and made to pay a fine; after paying the fine to the Remeta platform, such a station will be unsealed with a warning not to indulge in price hike again.”
He said it was a serious offence that attracts a fine of N1m for anyone to unseal the DPR seal order without the permission of the agency.
Awolu added, “We sympathise with marketers, especially those lifting the product from Calabar to the northern and central parts of Cross River State.
“They are supposed to be part of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund sponsored by the Federal Government to cushion the effect of transportation fare of the petroleum products. As it stands, they are not part of that regime.
“I will advise the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria to come together and make an appeal to the government with a view to benefitting from the fund.”
He appealed to members of the public to report to the DPR whenever they witnessed any sharp practices by filling station owner/operators in the state.
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