Fuel Price Hike: PH Motorists Slam DPR

Motorists in Port
Harcourt, the Rivers State capital have expressed disappointment over the inability of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to actively monitor the illegal activities of the petroleum product marketers in the city.
Some of the motorists who spoke to The Tide said while in other states and zones across the nation, DPR was sanctioning hike in petroleum products prices but in Port Harcourt perpetrators of such illegal act operate freely.
A taxi driver, Christopher Andrew, said, “DPR in Port Harcourt is unconcerned over the issues of hike in petroleum products, adjustment of meter, diversion, that is why you can never hear that any of the filling station operators or marketers had been caught”.
Another motorist, Johnson Clarkson, accused the DPR office in Port Harcourt of not working either in the interest of the masses or that of the Federal Government, in its commitment to check excesses of saboteurs in the oil and gas industry.
Clarkson said, “most filling stations adjust their meters such that it reads the normal N87,00 per litre but in the actual sense of it, what buyers get is less than a litre.
“In some others, the operators of the stations set their meters according to the official price, but they will tell you that, they are selling at N120,00 per litre”, he said and added that several reports had been made to the DPR office in Port Harcourt but they appear not to be concerned about the matter.
In his own reaction, a businessman, Godfrey Nwokocha said, “in other parts of the country, DPR is serious over price hike and other illegal activities, the office sanctions defaulters but in Port Harcourt, where the crude is being gotten and also refined, we still suffer to buy at regulated prices,” he said and called on the new Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu to investigate the activities of those in DPR Port Harcourt office, to stop the sufferings of the masses.
Cletus Nwaobia, a hotelier believes that it takes a serious DPR official to outsmart the illegal activities of fraudulent marketers and depot operators.
“I am disappointed in the unconcerned attitude of those in DPR Port Harcourt office. Let them be transferred out and new ones brought to take over the office for things to change”, he advised.
When our correspondent visited DPR office in Port Harcourt, the Public Relations officer was said not to be in office and efforts to get his reaction on phone also failed as he could neither respond to the calls nor text messages.

Chris Oluoh