Oil marketers hike fuel price in Lagos, Ogun

Marketers have employed new tactics to evade the Federal Government’s directive on N97 per litre pump price for the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol, investigation by New Telegraph in Lagos and Ogun states has revealed.

President Goodluck Jonathan set the regulated price for the product after the January 1, 2012, partial removal of fuel subsidy. While some of the marketers have adjusted their dispensing pumps to accommodate the N110 per litre price, others who have refused to adjust their pumps tell motorists to either comply with the new price or leave their premises. A survey of the filling stations showed that the Forte Oil filling station along Ijegun road in Lagos and many other filling stations in Ikotun, Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos are exploiting motorists.

An undercover investigation by this newspaper showed that filling stations such as Fowobi filling station in Oju-ore, Ota, Iswat Petroleum, Florinkay, Faith and Marvelous along Itele road in Ota, Ogun State, sell the product at N110 per litre. In all these stations, our correspondent was made to buy the product at N110 per litre based on insistence by petrol attendants. “The price is N110 per litre. Are you ready to buy it or you leave the road for those behind you?” a female attendant at Fowobi filling station said.

“Please do not be fouled by the N97 per litre price, which they display on their pump, they all sell it at between N110 and N120 per litre,” Mr. Ibrahim Salami, a commercial motorcyclist, who said that he has been buying the product at this price for over two months declared. A motorist in Ikotun, Alimosho area of Lagos, Mr. Henry Ogunbambo, corroborated his view. According to Ogunbambo, motorists have lost confidence in the ability of government to tame the excesses of fuel marketers.

“It is no more news,” he said, adding; “We are already getting used to it. The attendants do not even hesitate again that they can only sell fuel for us at N110 per litre. So, if you go round this area you will discover that all of them sell at that price and as a result of this, we are left with no choice but to buy at that rate,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has warned owners of filling stations against profiteering and other sharp practices of selling fuel above the pump price of N97 per litre. Its Commandant, Mr. Desmond Agu, gave the warning in Yenagoa, the state capital, at the weekend. “They are currently working with officers and men of NSCDC to ensure that these acts of destroying the nation’s oil pipelines and vandalism are over,” Agu said.

He called on youths in Nembe, Brass and Ekeremor local government areas to emulate the people of Southern Ijaw. “The act of vandalism and illegal bunkering is the major cause of fuel scarcity in the country. We want to also warn filling station operators who still sell above the official pump price of N97 to stop or be arrested,” he said.