RSG Warns Against Fuel Hoarding, Price Hike

Rivers State
Government has issued a warning to petrol filling stations in the state to desist from hoarding fuel or increasing the price of the product beyond the official pump price.
The State Commissioner for Energy, Hon. Okey Amadi, who issued the warning over the weekend, in Port Harcourt, in an interview with newsmen said any marketer caught in such illegal acts would be made to face the full weight of the law.
Amadi, who said marketers were indulging in price hike, hoarding and other sharp practices in the state because of the strike embarked upon by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), Petrol Tanker Drivers Unit, stated that the union had suspended its industrial action and that normal supply has been restored.
He said the ministry of energy officials are strictly monitoring the distribution chain and that marketers indulging in sharp practices would face appropriate sanctions.
The commissioner advised consumers not to indulge in panic buying and to always insist in the normal price and to collaborate with agencies of the ministry in arresting any defaulters.
It would be recalled that crisis greeted the fuel supply in the state and neighbouring states as NUPENG declared strike penultimate Thursday.
The strike was a protest in support of the union’s agitation or rehabilitation of the Eleme-Onne Road which is in a terrible state.
Tanker Drivers Unit Chairman of NUPENG in Rivers State, Comrade John Amajioyi, said the union members were facing difficulties in plying the road and that the situation had led to deaths of members and damages of their trucks.
He said previous efforts to get the attention of the Federal Government to fix the bad road had always fallen on deaf ears.
However, the strike was suspended last week because of the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and some other stakeholders.

Chris Oluoh

Petrol tankers lining up to load fuel at the Abonnema Wharf depot in Port Harcourt last Friday. The queue of the tankers extended to Ikwerre Road, thereby causing traffic jam. Photo: Nwiueh Donatus Ken