Residents of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, angry at the
Federal Government’s failure to address the perennial fuel scarcity in the
country, yesterday, yelled and threw
stones at officials of the Department of
Petroleum Resources (DPR), who were on surveillance visit to some filling
stations across the state.
The residents and motorists shouted that instead of the federal
government agency to make Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as
petrol, available, it was busy monitoring filling stations.
The angry residents, who were at various filling stations during the DPR
visit, said what they wanted was fuel, saying they are miffed at government’s
inability to address the fuel crisis in the country.
They asked the DPR to leave the filling stations owners, especially the
independent markers, to sell at their discretionary prices, since they alleged
that they buy at exorbitant prices from private depots outside the state.
Meanwhile, the DPR has sealed about nine pumps in various filling
stations for sundry offences, including hoarding, price hike and
under-dispensing of PMS to consumers.
Its Port Harcourt Zonal Operations Controller, Dr. Ibani Frank-Briggs, in
his reaction to threats by the angry residents, explained that it was not the
duty of DPR to make products available, stressing that its duty was to ensure
that products are sold at government approved pump prices and also dispensed
accordingly.
He said: “We know that there is fuel scarcity and that is why people are
facing such situations, but I want to assure the public that the sufferings and
pains would soon be over, as government is committed to ensuring the products
are available soon.”
He reckoned that if PMS should be deregulated the same way kerosene and
diesel are deregulated, the fuel challenges would be over.
Meanwhile, petroleum marketers have decried the situation, saying garri
and crayfish sellers are now better than them.
One of them, who is the Chairman of Anele Petroleum Limited at Iwofe
Road, Chief Phil Anele, said most of the pump sellers have been sacked, because
marketers have no products for months and could no longer cope with payment of
their salaries.
“A lot of marketers who took loans from banks have shut down completely,
because since there is no product to sell, the profit and capital have been
touched; hence we can no longer cope with the bank demands,” he added.
He called on the Federal Government to rise up and do something urgently
to fix the old refineries, build new ones and activate the modular refineries
to address the challenges in the downstream oil sector.
A motorist, Victor Amadi, told The Guardian that they were buying the
products at over N200 per litre due to frustrations, noting that nobody was happy
to buy fuel at such high prices.
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