Gov. Zulum storms filling stations hoarding fuel, urges DPR to sanction hoarders

By Sadiq Abubakar, The Nigerian Voice, Maiduguri

In what looks like a sabotage and plan to derail the efforts of the Governemnt in Borno state on coronavirus disease control and prevention, petrol operators have engaged in unnecessary hoarding of the petroleum products within the state capital while they sale the products at night to village surface tankers and hawkers.

This triggered Govenror Babagama Umara Zulum's unscheduled visits. Apparently, there are suspecious plans by some petrol marketers to create artificial scarcity under the cover of Covid-19 lockdown. They had planned to resale the products to the Motorists when Governor Zulum on Tuesday evening, stormed some filling stations in Maiduguri with a call on the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to seal the stations hoarding products.

In his surprise visits to some filling stations, he evaluated quantities of fuel available at some stations.

It will be recalled that the Governor’s visit was informed by reports of some unpatriotic marketers taking advantage of covid 19 preventive measures put in place by Government to hoard petroleum products to exploit buyers.

Zulum’s visit made some fuel stations to revert to selling products at government fixed prices of 125 naira pet liter as against inflated rates they forced on buyers who bought for fear of scarcity.

During his interactions with marketers, he frowned at the exploitative behaviors and said he would ensure they were punished by the DPR which has the statutory duty to regulate marketers.

"We will partner with DPR, the affected stations will be appropriately sanctioned to serve as deterrent. We noticed that most of the stations were either selling above the official N125 price per liter or hoarding the products for the reason best known to them. Therefore, I want to appeal to DPR that such stations be sealed”,Zulum said..