Buhari orders us to dispense hoarded petrol free to public - Baru

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that any marketer arrested hoarding products or selling above the approved pump price, should have them dispensed to the public free.

Dr. Baru who declared this Sunday in Abuja during a tour of some fuel stations in the Federal Capital City, said NNPC would work round the clock to sustain a regime of zero petrol queues across the country.

He said that fuel queues noticeable in parts of the country days back have all disappeared, adding that the country had over 30 days sufficiency of the product.

He disclosed that NNPC had increased its daily truckouts of PMS from 1,733 to 2000 to address the scarcity of the products in the hinterland, saying the corporation was poised to flood the market with petrol to return the situation to normalcy across the country.

“Therefore, those marketers that are still hoarding products in their stations should be aware that if they are caught by the regulatory agency of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and, of course, the law enforcement agencies, they stand the chance of losing their products to the public,” Dr. Baru cautioned.

He said there were no plans to increase the pump price of petrol, affirming that NNPC had succeeded in returning the country to zero petrol queues as a New Year gift to motorists.

A cross section of motorists commended the NNPC for clearing the petrol queues and enjoined them to sustain the efforts at ensuring availability of the product across the country.