Five petrol stations found to have been selling petrol above the official N87 pump price and creating artificial scarcity have been shut down by the Ekiti State Government.
Making the disclosure in Ado Ekiti on Monday, the Chairman, Ekiti State Petroleum Consumers Protection Agency, Mr. Adeyemi Adebayo, said the stations were selling between N100 and N110, which he said was tantamount to extortion.
This was part of the efforts of the state government to ease the
hard-biting petrol scarcity that crept into the state since last Wednesday.
The agency also alleged that the fuel stations were hoarding petroleum products, thereby subjecting motorists to hardship and unwarranted queues
at the stations.
According to him, each of the affected stations were to pay a fine of N500,000 each to the Ekiti State government’s coffers to serve as punitive measure.
Adebayo gave the names of the five fuel stations to include Prosperous filling station, Isan-Ekiti, Iroporal filling station, Iropora-Ekiti; Ferbason filling station, Ado-Ekiti, MNPC, Ado-Ekiti as well as Montel filling station also in Ado-Ekiti.
He vowed that the affected stations would not be re-opened until they revert to the normal price and stop further hoarding of the product.
Adebayo expressed regrets that some petrol dealers have chosen to make life difficult for people at a time when government was trying to make things easy for them.
He said his men caught the stations in the act, while acting on tip-off that some of the stations were selling a litre of fuel for as high as between N100 – N120, as against the N87 approved by government.
Adebayo vowed that his agency would not fold its arms and watch the dealers further perpetrate such act of cheating or causing artificial scarcity. (Thisday).