Jos – The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Jos Field Office which discovered over 27, 000 litres of petrol hoarded by independent Marketers at a fuel station in Mangu local government area of Plateau State and ordered its sale at regulated price to the public has also sealed nine fuel stations in Jos South, Mangu and Qua’an Pan local government areas of the State for operating illegally.

The Department while on a monitoring exercise led by its Head, Downstream, Monitoring and Regulations, Ahmadu Fagge sealed the fuel stations saying they were illegally constructed in residential and other unsuitable locations and asked their owners to obtain clearance from relevant government agencies.

While ordering the Manager of Echemas Nigeria Ltd, Manasseh Vongden where 27,000 litres of petrol were hoarded to commence sale to motorists, Fagge put telephone calls to Managers of Stations where the product were supplied but refused to sell to immediately open their stations or be booked for hoarding which they all complied. He appealed to Marketers to desist from act of sabotage as such would not bring the needed economic growth. His words, “We had to seal two illegally operated stations in Jos South one in Mangu and six at Namu, Qua’an Pan local government areas because they are not in our register, they are operating illegally in residential areas thereby posing great risk to the surrounding buildings. They need to get approval from relevant government agencies. “As we monitor, we discovered that stations that have the product did not dispense so we had to compel them to sell at regulated price to the public. They should stop this act of sabotage because it is bringing untold hardship to the people.” However, residents of the affected areas including Philip Yusuf and Elisha Dapul expressed joy at the exercise as Yusuf said, “It has brought relief to the people, we have been buying petrol between N195 and N200 and above since December last year but with this, we now buy at regulated price.” Dapul added, “We have been suffering because instead of them selling to us, they hoard the product and sell to black market people. This is welcome development that should be sustained.”

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DPR orders sale of hoarded fuel, seals nine stations in plateau