By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja
Motorists, commercial motorcycle and Tricycle operators in Lokoja and its environment in kogi state on Wednesday, called on the management of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to beam their search light on filling station operators in Lokoja to check shortchange.
They made the call in separate interview in some of the filling stations our correspondent visited, to observe alleged shortchange by fuel dealers in the sale of fuel in the area.
The drivers complained bitterly that the negative effect of the recent increase in the pump price of fuel to N170.000 per litre had been further compounded by the fact most filling stations had adjusted their pumbs to cheat on the motorists and other members of the public.
A commercial motorcycle rider, Umar Muhammed, said the recent hike in the pump price of fuel notwithstanding, he still noticed that filling stations were not selling the product commensurate with the new price.
“With the new price of fuel, I am supposed to fill my tank with about N800, but the same tank takes about N1,000 to get filled.
” We the commercial motorcycle riders would appreciate if DPR can check these greedy filling station operators, to safe us from being cheated. If this is not checked on time,, it is the passengers that will bear the brunt,” he warned.
A commercial driver, Adeniyi Babatunde, who also expressed concern over the unhealthy development in an interview with the Reporters,urged DPR to wade in on time, adding paying for the fuel not consumed had a lot of negative effect on the daily earning by him and his colleagues.
” You discover that even with slight increase in transport fare, consequent upon the increase in the pump price of fuel, many commercial drivers in lokoja hardly break even, not to talk of profit.
“This is because substantial per cent of what we make daily goes to buying black market fuel, a development that in most cases leave us with no profit at the end of the day.
Some of the petrol attendants, who also spoke with the online publication, on the basis of anonymity,denied the allegation, saying that their pumb price machines were fixed from the headquarters of their company, adding that they were correct and in line with the new increase in fuel.
Our correspondent, however, noticed slight flexibility in the pumb price of fuel as few stations were selling at N168 while majority pegged their price at N 170 per litre, as at the time of this report.
