Senate panel orders fuel-hoarding stations sealed

ANY petrol station hoarding the product should be sealed immediate henceforth, the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum Resources, which is investigating the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, has directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Chairman of the committee, Senator Magnus Abe, also assured that the long queues at filling stations across the country would soon disappear, as the committee has approached the Lagos State Government and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to allow tanker drivers lift products.

Abe told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that the move was in compliance with the resolutions between the Senate Joint Committee and stakeholders in the oil industry.

He noted: “We have spoken with the Lagos State Commissioner for Transport and the chairman of NUPENG in Lagos, and they’ve assured that everybody was complying.

The situation will improve and continue to improve. There’s still a lot of panic buying going on but, as days go by, the queues would reduce.”

Asked if the Senate was satisfied with the progress recorded since the truce was brokered among stakeholders, Abe said that “nobody can say he is satisfied with the present situation because, as I would say, this is something that would happen again and again except we have a drastic review and overhaul of the entire system scheme. “This is not a permanent solution, it’s a stop-gap measure to allow normalcy return to the sector.

It would be the responsibility of the incoming administration to look for a more permanent solution. “I’m very confident that normalcy will soon be restored and I urge Nigerians to give the system a chance to correct itself, and those who have fuel do not need to go back to the filling stations to refill because there’s no scarcity coming. “

Those who do not need to buy should not store at home because when you do that, you are contributing to the scarcity. We have given very clear instructions to the DPR that anybody who has stock and is not selling in the hours that we have agreed should have their licenses revoked and their facilities sealed.

“I will be in touch with the DPR today to ensure that nobody toys with that instruction. If anybody has information to the contrary, that the filling stations are hoarding, they should contact DPR and they would be dealt with.”