The Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream has directed the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to sanction any filling station hoarding and selling petrol above the official price.
Alhaji Kabir Marafa, the committee chairman, gave the directive on Sunday in Gusau.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Marafa had led his committee members and officials of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on inspection of some filling stations in the state.
Mafara described the situation as unfortunate and disheartening, saying that in spite of the efforts by the Federal Government to end scarcity of petrol, some bad elements were still hoarding the product.
He said that most of the filling stations visited were not selling as they were hoarding the commodity, while others were selling above the official price.
“We are here to carry out the assignment given to us by the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, to investigate the situation of fuel scarcity in the country.
“We have already directed our members to go back to their respective constituencies to investigate the situation,” he said.
Mafara urged the DPR office in the state to intensity its efforts in monitoring the filling stations and ensure total compliance.
“We want to probe what the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Group Managing Director, Maikanti Baru, have been telling Nigerians on daily basis.
“He said they supplied 80 million litres of fuel per day, still there is shortage of supply of the product, so, we have to find out.
“As lawmakers, it is our responsibilities to address the suffering of our people,” he said. (NAN)NASS
