Motorists in Awka, the capital of Anambra, have called on the state government to seal up filling stations that undermine the smooth distribution of petrol.
The motorists made the call in protest against some filling stations that deliberately refused to attend to the public despite having products in sufficient quantity.
They said special attention should be given to activities of a particular filling station which sold at a reasonably low price but operated a little over six hours a day.
Nnamdi Ezeudo, an inter-state transport operator, said the filling station near the Anambra Fire Service headquarters, Agu Awka in Awka, was making life difficult for the people.
Mr Ezeudo told journalists on Sunday that the station, which sold at over N150, less than other independent marketers, left people in queues from 6:00 a.m. till about 11:00 a.m. before opening for business.
“This is pure hoarding, and it is an offence. The state government should make them operate according to the law or shut them down,” he said.
Another motorist, Tony Nnaeto, said only independent marketers who sold petrol at high prices opened to customers from morning till night if they had products, unlike major marketers like Rain Oil outlets and NNPC mega station.
Mr Nnaeto, a civil servant, said filling station operations were guided by law and should be supervised by the relevant regulatory authorities, but instead, the masses were left on their own.
“How can one be in the queue, at a filling station that has products, for five to hours yet they do not open; how many hours do you have to work when you eventually manage to buy at about 3:00 p.m.,” he said.
However, some of the attendants at one of the filling stations said only their management staff, who were outside the state, could speak on issues of their operations.
Reacting to the situation, Tony Ifeanya, Commissioner for Petroleum Resources in Anambra, said the government had received many complaints of unacceptable business practices by the marketers.
Mr Ifeanya said though marketers would argue that only NMDPRA had powers over their operations, the government of Anambra had the constitutional mandate to protect its citizens from abuse and extortion.
He said hoarding petroleum products amounted to economic sabotage, and no marketer would be allowed to frustrate efforts of the federal government to ease the stress in the downstream sector.
“We have received complaints on the arbitrary operations of some of these filling stations. As a government, we shall move in to check these excesses because we have the mandate to protect the people,” Mr Ifeanya explained. “They have products but open to the public whenever they like. We will not condone that any more. These are mainly some filling stations that sell at a little cheaper rate.”
(NAN)
