The Ibadan field office of the Department of Petroleum Resources, which controls Oyo and Osun states, has sealed about 100 petrol filling stations across the two states in a weeklong exercise aimed at penalising marketers who sell petrol above the official pump price of N87 per litre.

Apart from selling above the regulated price, the management of the affected filling stations were also accused of diversion of petroleum products, tampering with meters and other sharp practices.

Some of the filling stations shut in Ibadan and Osogbo are Agape Energy, Femson Petroleum, S.T. Akpata Petroleum, Taska Energy Resources, Mallo Petroleum, Hamzat Oil, BK Petroleum, Mubilat Oil and Prolek Oil.

The Operations Controller, Ibadan field office, DPR, Mr. Olakunle Ogunlana, who led the team around the Ibadan metropolis on Thursday, explained that the move became imperative in view of the excesses of some fuel marketers who engaged in dubious activities that raised the price of petrol and frustrated the government’s effort at making the product available to the people.

Earlier in the day, our correspondent observed that many filling stations in Ibadan, which perhaps got information that the DPR was carrying out an inspection, began to sell the product at N87 per litre instead of the previous rate of between N100 and N120 per litre.

After the exercise, Ogunlana said, “The intention is to ensure that petrol filling stations sell at the normal government approved price. Petrol is available in the country and the government is doing enough to make sure that the product is never in short supply across the country, but some marketers will not just sell at the approved price as a result of greed.”