By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The economic hardship being experienced by the Nigerian masses is getting tougher by the day as petrol sellers are under dispensing their products to unsuspecting buyers despite the hike in pump prices from N800 only per liter threshold to over N1,300 only per liter due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
The war between Iran and Israel in conjunction with the United States of America (USA), which has entered its second week, has seen an unprecedented hike in pump prices in Nigeria and across the world because of the high cost of crude oil and unavailability of refined petroleum products following the close of Strait of Hormuz, a waterway for international shipping activities.
However, as the ripple effects of the Middle East crisis reach Nigeria and cause high energy prices, it has given some unscrupulous petroleum products marketers the opportunity to adjust their pump prices and volume of products dispensed to customers at fuel stations.
Prompt News investigations have revealed that despite the high cost of petroleum products across Nigeria, most of the petrol stations are now underdispensing the products to their unsuspecting customers at various fuel stations in the rural and urban areas across the country.
For example, most of the petrol stations visited in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) since the pump prices of petroleum products went up are discovered to be underdispensing the products to unsuspecting buyers despite the fact that they are paying more for the products.
A resident of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and a car owner, Prince Anthony Edward, descried the upsurge in underdispensing of petroleum products by petrol station owners.
According to him, despite the fact that the pump prices have increased, fuel stations have adjusted their pumps to reduce the volume of products dispensed to customers, pointing out that he has cleverly observed the underhand tactics which petroleum products marketers have adopted at their filling stations in FCT.
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Also, Mrs. Ramota Adamu, who owns a small business in the Wumba community in Apo District of FCT, said she buys petrol in a jerrycan to power her generator and can confirm that most of the petrol stations in Abuja are underdispensing the products to unsuspecting customers.
Said she: “I can confirm that despite the fact that we are buying petrol at high price, what the petrol stations are dispensing to customers is less quantity of the products paid for. They are shortchanging the people”
A taxi operator in Bwari Council Area of FCT, Alhaji Ahmed Bakori, insists that most filling stations in both the metropolis and suburbs are underdispensing their products and called on relevant federal government authorities to monitor the activities of filling station owners.
“It is unfortunate that Nigerians are at the mercy of filling station owners who adjust not only their prices but underdispense the products without any consequences. They do these, especially during fuel scarcity period”, Bakori alleged.
Efforts to speak to both filling station owners and petrol pump attendants who dispense petroleum products proved abortive as none of them want to speak press on the alleged discrepancies observed on the metering of their products.
This is even as most people who buy the products in jerrycan can confirm that the volume in the pump meter is not always the quantity dispensed from the pump.
Regrettably, federal government agencies that have oversight powers over the filling station operations in Nigeria no longer put a check on the operators, a situation which has left customers at the mercy of filling station owners.
