Motorists urge Anambra Govt to penalise outlets hoarding petrol

Motorists in Awka, the capital of Anambra, have called on the state government to seal up filling stations that undermine smooth distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the state.

The motorists made the call in protest against some filling stations that deliberately refused to attend to the public in spite of having products in sufficient quantity.

They said special attention should be given to activities of a particular filling station which sold at a reasonably low price but operated a little over six hours a day.

Mr Nnamdi Ezeudo, an inter-state transport operator, said the filling station, located near the Anambra Fire Service headquarters, Agu Awka in Awka, was making life difficult for the people.

Ezeudo said on Sunday that the station, which sold at over N150, less than other independent marketers, left people in queues from 6 a.m. till about 11 a.m. before opening for business.

“Any day I want to buy fuel here, I don’t do any other thing, I don’t even operate my business because I will come here as early as 5 a.m. to queue and these people will not start selling until around 12 noon.

“They sell at a good price because we understand they are one of the depot owners but, they should serve the public or close, it is unethical to behave the way you like because members of the public have limited choice.

” This is pure hoarding and it is an offence. The state government should make them operate according to the law or shut them down,” he said.

Another motorist, Mr Tony Nnaeto, said only independent marketers which sold PMS at high prices opened to customers from morning till night if they had products, unlike major marketers like Rain Oil outlets and NNPC mega station.

Nnaeto, a civil servant, said filling station operations were guided by law and should be supervised by the relevant regulatory authorities but instead the masses were left on their own.

According to him, the prices are haphazard – those selling at low prices don’t sell even when they have products while those that sell at high prices are open for business unless they don’t have.

“How can one be on queue, at a filling station that has products, for five six hours yet they do not open; how many hours do you have to work when you eventually manage to buy at about 3 p.m.

“The Anambra State Government and Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority don’t come around to check these excesses; even their pump metres are not monitored to ensure they dispense adequately,” he said.

Some of the attendants at one of the filling stations, however, said only their management staff, who were outside the state, could speak on issues of their operations.

Reacting to the situation, Mr Tony Ifeanya, Commissioner for Petroleum Resources in Anambra, said the government had received a huge number of complaints of unacceptable business practices by the marketers.

Ifeanya said though marketers would argue that only NMDPRA had powers over their operations, the government of Anambra had the constitutional mandate to protect its citizens from abuse and extortion.

He said hoarding of petroleum products amounted to economic sabotage and no marketer would be allowed to frustrate efforts of the Federal Government to ease the stress in the downstream sector.

“We have received complaints on the arbitrary operations of some of these filling stations. As a government, we shall move in to check these excesses because we have the mandate to protect the people.

“They have products but open to the public whenever they like, we will not condone that any more, these are mainly some filling stations that sell at a little cheaper rate,” he said.