Authorities of the Directorate of Petroleum Resources (DPR) yesterday intervened in the flagrant abuse of the N141 price per litre of fuel fixed by the Federal Government following the removal of subsidy and shut down two filling stations in Yenagoa over over arbitrary increase of pump price and complicity in the mass sales of the product at N200 by black marketers in the state.
The action of the State DPR however did not stop the decision of the Civil Society groups under the aegis of the Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organisations Forum (BANGOF), the members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) to declare their support for the planned protest by the State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Monday.
The Head of Downstream Department of the DPR in Bayelsa State, Mr. Duncan Eradiri in a phone interview with Leadership in Yenagoa said the Directorate decided to close down the erring petrol station for exploiting the situation caused by the hike in pump price of petrol.
Eradiri who declined to disclose the identity of the affected stations said, it was discovered that they were selling at one hundred and fifty naira per litre, which is above the new pump price of N141 per litre,” When you are selling above the new rate or you adjust your pump, your station would be sealed”,
Eradiri warned adding that the DPR will not hesitate to clamp down on any petroleum dealer in the state found to be exploiting the people in the wake of the recent removal of subsidy, “We at the DPR are not sleeping. We are going round monitoring the situation in all petrol stations. As I speak now, we are on the streets”.