DPR seals off 7 petrol filling stations

By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa-The Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, has wielded the big stick by sealing off seven filling stations in Yenagoa, allegedly involved in sharp practices of over pricing and under dispensing of products.

The development, investigations revealed, has further put pressure on the NNPC mega station and other NNPC retail outlets in the predominantly riverine state, where long queues had since returned to the few available filling stations with the products.

Comptroller of DPR in Bayelsa State, Dr. Duncan Eradiri, who confirmed the shut down of the seven filling stations in Yenagoa, said the action was taken during a surveillance exercise on petrol filling stations in the state.

He said the action was taken “when our partnership with Independent Petroleum marketers on the need to correct the issue of over pricing and under dispensation of petrol did not yield positive result as they still sold petrol at N70 per litre.”

Some of the petrol filling stations, he said, even went ahead to sell  with the DPR seals on their stations, adding that such stations were reported to the law enforcement agencies and arrests made.