House Directs DPR to Release List of Illegal Filling Stations for Demolition

The House of Representatives on Thursday directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to release the list of illegal filling stations cited at the boarder communities  to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for demolition.

The Chairman of House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Mahmud Gaiya, gave the directive yesterday when the Comptroller-General of  NCS, Col. Hamid Ali (rtd); DPR and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) appeared before the Committee over the decision to stall the supply of petrol to filling stations cited 20 kilometres to the boarder without due consultation.

The Custom CG had while explaining the rationale behind the decision, accused the DPR of refusing to avail the NCS with the list of illegal and legal filling stations at the border communities.

The Committee decried the excruciating pains Nigerians living at the boarder communities are going through due to the decision to stall supply of petrol to some filling stations at the borders.

The committee lamented that a litre of petrol is now being sold between N600 and 800 at the boarder communities, adding that whatever purpose that was intended to be achieved has now been defeated because the decision has added to the untold hardship of the people living at the border communities.

The Committee lamented that the obnoxious decision was ill-timed, adding that the consultation that took place during the meeting with the Committee could have been held before the decision to stall supply of petrol to some filling stations at the border was taken.

It also accused some personnel of Customs of colluding with smugglers to  smuggled petrol into neighbouring countries

 

The Committee insisted that policy should not only be reviewed but must be rescinded.

While directing DPR, which he accused of causing the mess, Gaiya said: "This list must reach the office of the CG tomorrow. Since you have this list and you have refused to give them, we are then forced to take the decision."

Earlier, Ali said the decision to stop the supply of petrol was not meant to be a permanent decision, adding that the decision would be reviewed.

He stated categorically that the decision was not taken to hurt anybody; even though he said during war, there would always be collateral damage.

The Customs CG noted that 30 to 40 per cent of fuel that the federal government subsidies go out of the country, stressing that “30 per cent of our own fuel is a lot of money.”

"I know that there is a policy in this country that says no petrol station should be established 10 kilometres to the border. It is there! It exists! It is a policy. It is now left for us to work with DPR and ensure that this policy is implemented. So any petrol station that is beyond that, it is either its licence is revoked or it should be relocated within the confines of the law.

"The bottom line is that this decision is not supposed to be a permanent decision. Like I said, we had to take a decision in order to address the grave situation in this country. There is no doubt about it that we are losing a lot of money. The DPR is in a better situation to give you the statistics. They are there to tell you how many litres of petrol they get. They have calculated how much is going out.”

On his part, the Assistant Director of Operations, DPR, dris Zangi, said only 923 filling stations at the boarder are approved and about 400 are illegal.