Port Harcourt Motorists Want Monitoring Of Filling Stations

Worried by the
arbitrariness of petroleum marketers along the East West Road with respect to increase in pump price and adjustment of dispensing meter to their selfish advantage, motorists that operate within the axis have called on the Directorate of Petroleum Resources  (DPR) to checkmate the activities of those marketers.
Motorists, especially those that operate commercial vehicles along the Rumuokoro-Choba axis have alleged that they have suffered so much from the marketers who are bent on selling their products on adjusted meters, apart from selling above official price.
Speaking to The Tide while reacting to the matter, one of the motorists, popularly known as “Big Joe” that operate from Rumuokoro to Choba, stated that what they use  as one litre guage is not up to a litre, adding that the total quantity of petrol dispensed as 10 litres in 90 per cent of stations along East-West Road, is just about seven litre in proper dispenser pump.
He alleged that the marketers have continued in the act because they are not being checked by the government agents like the DPR and urged the authorities of DPR to wake up to the challenge and save the consumers.
Narrating his ordeal, a bus operator in the area, Chidi Wokem, explained that he had severally quarreled with some of the marketers because of shortage in quantity of petrol he was expecting to have.
He said that most of the time, he used rubber container to buy product so as to know the exact quantity they sold to him, but that on a particular day, he was short-charged by one of the franchise NNPC stations near Rumuosi in Akpor.
Wokem said, “I bought 10 litres of petrol which was dispensed in my jerry can and I know where the quantity is supposed to be, but to my surprise, it was far below the gauges; I had to call the people’s attention and rejected the fuel, even in a supposed NNPC franchise station”.
For Mr Clement Wena, a private car owner, most of the marketers, even those that claim to be major marketers on the East-West Road have become lords on their own, as they do not want to know whether government exists or not.
Wena explained that the marketers and so many stations along the Rumuokoro-Choba axis have uptill now been selling product between N115 and N130 per litre and urged the DPR to beam  its search light on the area to checkmate the marketers on a continuous basis.

Corlins Walter