By Saheed Ibrahim

In defiance to the Federal government’s directive that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, should be sold at N125.50 per litre, majority of fuelling stations in Ondo state have refused to comply, as they still sell at N125 per litre.

Earlier, the Federal Government had announced that petrol pump price should be sold at N123.50 per litter effective 1st April 2020.

A statement released by the Executive Secretary, Nigeria’s Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Abdukadir Saidu reads, “the guiding price which becomes effective 1st April 2020, shall apply at all retail outlets nationwide”.

The reduction in the price of the product was due to the crash in global crude oil prices.

However, The Hope investigation revealed that more than 90percent of fuelling stations in the state still sell at N125 per litre.

Despite the fact that NNPC, Conoil and Matrix were selling at N123.50 per litre, other fuelling stations approached claimed that they were yet to receive any order to sell at N123.50 per litre while some claimed that they were yet to sell off their last purchased which was bought in view of the N125 per litre price.

One of the attendants at Freeman told The Hope that “we still sell at N125 because we have not been given any order to start selling below that amount”.

Another attendant at Tunji and Tunji petrol station stated that they sell at N125 per litre because the last delivery they got was yet to be exhausted.

At Shamrock petroleum station, one of the attendants there told The Hope that the company was still selling at N125 per litre because those who supply the company still supply with the old price so it is not possible for them to sell at a reduced price.

The Hope made several attempts to speak with the Operations Controller of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Adewale Oseni on the situation and even sent text message but all efforts proved abortive.