The Federal Government will not increase the pump price of petrol, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke assured on Tuesday.
Alison-Madueke who appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Downstream and Gas in a closed session, spoke with reporters after the meeting.
She also vowed to ensure that those who are found culpable of the lingering fuel scarcity which she attributed to hoarding would not go unpunished.
“There was also some strange rumor that the ministry of petroleum resources was going to announce an increase in the pump price of petrol which also helped to instigate some of the hoarding and some of the diversion. And I have said categorically over, and get that, we have no plans to increase the pump price of petrol anytime in the near future.
“The issues of supplies, more and more PMS is being brought in and over the next week or two we would flood the country with the product.
“And in terms of the diversions we would try and ensure that whichever stations we find to have actually diverted or hoarded the produce, we will take them up and implement punitive measures no matter which stations they are, whether they are NNPC stations or any other stations, independent or otherwise we will take them up to face the full extent of the law,” she said.
Explaining the reasons for the lingering fuel scarcity, the minister said, “It was quite obvious that it could be caused by a number of things that we are looking into. There is some supply hitch which we are looking into; there is also diversion which was quite clear.
“There was an element of hoarding as well. And while we are trying to get to the bottom of who diverted what at the same time in terms of supply, we are trying to ensure that over the next week we flood the country with petroleum products”.
