The Department of Petroleum Resources on Friday stormed
several filling stations at Ikorodu, Ibeju-Lekki and Ketu, in
Lagos and shut down 14 stations for manipulating their
dispensing pumps and over-charging buyers, among other
offences.

While all the affected stations had N87 per litre on their pumps
as the selling price, the pumps were under-dispensing petrol,
with almost one litre lost by buyers for every 10 litres bought.
The affected stations include Mobil at Owode bus-stop,
Ikorodu; So Super Limited (Sahara), Ogolonto, Ikorodu; General
Oil Limited, Ketu; Walesaf, Owode-Idera bus-stop, Ikorodu, and
HS Petroleum at Ketu.
At Mobil, 150 litres of water were also found in 30,000 litres of
PMS in one of its tanks.

Two pumps were sealed at MRS station at Alapere, Ikorodu
road.

At the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation station, Irawo
bus-stop, Ikorodu road, three of its pumps were sealed for
under-dispensing.

At Ibeju-Lekki, Kaz Oil, Lakowe; Forte Oil, Gulf road, Lakowe;
Ona Ara Oil and Gas Station; Forte Oil, Molete; Wakass, Igando-
Oloja; Forte Oil, Abule Folly Ibeju, and Forte Oil, Oribanwa were
all sealed.

The Forte Oil station at Oribanwa was sealed for hoarding
24,000 litres of PMS and refusal to open pumps for testing by
the DPR officials.

Kaz Oil, whose pumps read N86.50 per litre at the time of the
visit, under-dispensed petrol by 0.8 litre for every 10 litres,
thereby making the public buy the product above N90 per litre.

Ona Ara Oil and Gas station, where there was no one to attend
to the DPR inspectors, was sealed as the officials believed the
pumps were switched off and abandoned on the news that the
DPR was at the nearby station, Kaz Oil.

At Forte Oil along Gulf road, Lakowe, two of its pumps were
under-dispensing by 0.98 litre and 1.06 litre for every 10 litres.
Wakass and Forte Oil at Molete filling stations were closed
down for short-changing buyers by 0.82 litre and 0.95 litre
respectively for every 10 litres.

At Forte Oil, Abule Folly, the pumps were under-dispensing by
as much as 1.26 per litre for every 10 litres, meaning that a
buyer who was there to buy 10 litres got less than 9 litres.

The Zonal Operations Controller, Lagos, DPR, Mrs. Chioma
Njoku, in an interview with newsmen at the end of the exercise,
said the affected stations would be made to pay a fine of
N100,000 each.

She said, “Some of them engage in manipulating their pumps
that under-dispense to the public, which is a way of over-
charging the buyers and they bear the brunt of it when caught.”

Punch