Gom Mirian
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has warned fuel station operators who tamper with their fuel dispensing pumps to desist or risk having their operating licences revoked.
Describing the act as illegal, deceptive and harmful to the public, ththChief Executive Secretary, NMDPRA, Mr Farouk Ahmed, noted in Abuja on Friday, that other sanctions to could be meted out to offenders include suspension from operation or shut down of the station, depending on the gravity of the offence.
“What we are doing now is that we have some of our staff going round to take on-the-spot checks of some of the petrol stations. If you drive into a station, drive out, you will not know if you have been cheated until you do a measurement,” he said.
Ahmed continued: “Sometimes we do a physical measurement where we go to some stations and buy one litre, look at that environment to see whether that one litre is really one litre.Then we will know whether or not they have tampered with the pump.”
He said that the authority would continue to collaborate with the RMAFC to generate more revenue for the federation.
“We have started the engagement but this is just a formal collaboration on areas where we can improve the revenue generation for the federation.There are two areas we have to look at which are either to generate revenue or cut costs,” he said.
On his part, RMAFC Chairman, Bello Shehu, noted that the engagement between both organisations was to strengthen their partnership.
“We are here in order for them to enlighten us on what they do and what we can do as a commission to assist them to better boost revenue generation for Nigeria.We are interested in what the authority does to enable us monitor better and know the right questions to ask which will enable us give appropriate information,” he said.
