NANS joins task-force against unscrupulous fuel marketers, as scarcity bites

As the current fuel scarcity enters its second month, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has pledged to join a taskforce in alliance with the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other relevant agencies in order to expose unscrupulous marketers who hoard the product wreaking hardship on Nigerians in the process.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the National President of NANS, Comrade Sunday Asefon, noting that part of the task force’s mandate would be to monitor the sale and distribution of the product.

“NANS wishes to declare its readiness to join the surveillance team to monitor and ensure effective distribution, avert diversion and fight out deliberate price hikes by retailers,” he noted.

Asefon further clarified that “there is never a plan to enforce new pump price on Nigerian as insinuated by some unscrupulous elements” while lauding the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other relevant agencies over efforts at curbing hoarding, price hike, and diversion across the nation.

The NANS President said, “It is also a verifiable fact that the Government through the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, (NNPC Ltd), and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has demonstrated consistency and dedication, at beginning by alerting Nigerians of the off-spec petroleum products as well as working to ensure that all affected companies and individuals responsible for this adulterated fuel mess are appropriately sanctioned.

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“NANS commend NMDPRA who alerted the country of methanol above national specifications in the imported petrol and proceeded to declare that efforts were on top gear to remove the contaminated products from circulation to avoid economic damage.

“Nigerians we recalled that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, in subsequent statements and an appearance at the House of Representatives outlined efforts by NNPC to arrest the situation.

“Among which are NNPC and other relevant agencies embarking on Petrol Distribution Surveillance (PDS), with the sole aim of seeing to the seamless evacuation of adulterated products from mother vessels to depots and trucking from depots to other inland depots as well as retail stations.

“Information available to Nigerian student’s Apex body also confirmed that there is daily monitoring of trucks out from depots to all 36 states of the nation.

“Besides these, there is never a plan to enforce new pump price on Nigerian as insinuated by some unscrupulous elements.

“Our team shall be entering all fuel stations to ensure anyone with the product that refused to sell are forced to sell while those selling at hike prices shall be forced to sell at normal price.

“This action plan has become imperative in view of rescuing the situation and supporting the NNPC to help Nigerians to overcome this suffering,” he said.

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