Marketers of petroleum products have been warned by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to either sell at the government approved price of N145 per litre of PMS or risk losing their entire products if caught.

An official of the DPR in Enugu state Mr Unyime Akpan gave the warning while on an inspection tour of major petrol stations in Enugu state.

“Petrol price is controlled; stations are not supposed to sell above N145 per liter and if the cost of getting products suggests they cannot sell at that price, then they should leave out.

“Marketers are the people encouraging the hike; if they are not gaining from it, then they leave out until the system returns to normal.

“We may have to begin to dispense their products free because DPR also has the powers; if the price compliance sales prove ineffective, we may be left with no option than to give out their petrol, so that they can understand how serious we are,” he said.

Reacting the Independent Petroleum Marketing Association of Nigeria IPMAN says it is not happy with the way the DPR is harassing its members.

They claimed that officials of the DPR sometimes illegally close down their stations and auction their products at will.

“It is like they want to push us out of business because we cannot continue to suffer this loss,” Chief Ikechukwu Nwankwo IPMAN chairman in Enugu lamented.

“I have spoken with my members here in Anambra, the situation of fuel supply is bad and it is our wish that we begin to get products like the way it used to be before.

“NNPC is not allocating products to us, DPR should go and monitor the marketers that get allocation from NNPC; how can we buy product at N190 or N195 and DPR sells them off at N145.

“We make extra effort to get product at tank depot so that economic activities can go on and we should not be punished for that; we may have to close our stations if they continue to pursue us,” he said.

 

Image source: tvcnews