President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime has threatened to sanction fuel stations or depots selling petrol above the official price of N165 per litre.

The threat followed the persistent fuel scarcity witnessed in the FCT and its environs as well as other parts of the country.

Farouk Ahmed, the authority chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) gave the warning on Monday during a joint inspection on fuel stations in Abuja.

The exercise was carried out in collaboration with top officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Petroleum Pipeline and Marketing Company (PPMC) and the NMDPRA.

He said the inspection was to enforce the regulations by following up warnings given to the oil marketing companies, particularly those selling above the official price of N148.

According to him, the pump price of petrol was still N165 per litre.

The government would punish defaulters because based on its engagement with the Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers of Nigeria (MOMAN), stressed Mr Ahmed.

“We are actually trying to monitor the dispensing to ensure that all the stations with petrol are dispensing all their trucks to reduce the long queues and ensure efficiency in service. We are monitoring the depot sales also, checking the number of trucks that are loaded; this is a serious fact which we look at,” stressed Mr Ahmed.

He added, “There has been a lot of improvement in the distribution of PMS, we have gone round the Airport road and saw a lot of stations selling and discharging fuel. The queues are not long like before and the average trucks we have received in Abuja in the last three days are about 140 trucks against 70 trucks to 80 trucks received before; so there is a lot of improvement.”

He commended transporters “because now they are reacting to the president’s offer of additional N10 as an incentive on their transportation charges. At least we are seeing improvement.”

Mr Buhari recently approved the upward review in freight rate of oil transporters to alleviate challenges associated with petrol distribution nationwide. The revised freight rate of petrol took effect from June 1, still maintaining the current regulated pump price of N165 per litre.

Mr Ahmed explained that the president increased the freight rate of transporters from N10.46 to N20.46. He said this was just to show that the transporters could still transport the product across the nation without loss of revenue which they complained about.

Adeyemi Adetunji, the group executive director NNPC’s downstream, reassured Nigerians there would be adequate fuel supply.

“Today we have 1.9 billion litres of PMS. Lagos is cleared in a couple of days. We will clear the queues in Abuja,” stated Mr Adetunji.

(NAN)