Nigeria’s President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has ordered the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), to take urgent action to end the current scarcity of petrol in parts of the country.
A news release issued by Presidential Adviser (Communications) Olusegun Adeniyi, made available on Friday disclosed this.
“At a meeting with chief executives and senior officials of the NNPC, DPR and SON late Thursday in Abuja, President Yar’Adua expressed displeasure at the hardships ordinary Nigerians were undergoing as a consequence of the limited availability of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) across the country.
“The President directed the three organisations and all other relevant government agencies to take immediate steps to speed-up checks on the many fuel cargoes awaiting discharge in Lagos to ascertain the ethanol contents of the imported fuel is within permissible limits.”
Supply delays caused by the checks which became mandatory in the aftermath of the recent importation of fuel with an unacceptably high content of ethanol had been identified as the main cause of the current scarcity of PMS.
Yar’Adua further directed companies licensed to import fuel into Nigeria must be made to bear responsibility for ensuring the fuel products they bring into the country meet acceptable standards.
Warning that his administration will not tolerate a situation in which Nigerians are cheated and exposed to the hazards of adulterated fuel, he directed that companies found culpable be severely punished. Panapress.
