Most petrol stations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had complied with Federal Government’s directive to sell petrol at N86 per litre for NNPC retail stations and N86.50k for other marketers.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who went round the town reports that all the stations visited had enough products, as well as standby trucks loaded with the petrol.

NAN also reports that the stations visited such as Conoil, Oando, total and Mobil filling stations within the city centre witnessed very low patronage.

Mr Suleiman Mohammed, the Sales Representative of NNPC retail station and a Supervisor of FCT retail stations, said that the directive took effect from 12 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2016.

Mohammed said all NNPC stations in the FCT have substantially complied with the new directive.

He said that the NNPC Mega Station along Olusegun Obasanjo Way in Abuja currently had over 200,000 litres of petrol and four standby trucks containing 45,000 litres each.

He, therefore, urged FCT residents not to panic as petrol stations in the territory had enough products to cater for their demands.

An independent Marketer and Manager of Oando filling station along Olusegun Obasanjo Way in Wuse Zone 1, Abuja, Mr Mohammed, said the station had complied with the new directive but there was low patronage.

He said the station had more than 300,000 litres of the product both in stock and in standby trucks.

An investigation by NAN revealed that other stations such as Conoil, total filling stations in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, also witnessed low patronage, except Mobil filling station in Utako, Abuja, which had appreciable number of customers.

Some motorists on queue who were waiting to buy the product said they were happy now that petrol was available everywhere and filling stations were selling at the approved price.

On his part, A taxi driver, Mr Gabriel Akoh, thanked the Federal Government for the reduction in pump price and urged the government to ensure availability of the product at all time.

The Federal Government had directed all retail stations of the NNPC to sell petrol at N86 per litre as from Jan. 1, while independent petrol marketers should sell at N86.50k a litre.

Mr Farouk Ahmed, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), announced this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.

Ahmed said that the reduction in the price of the commodity was due to an implementation of the revised components of the Petroleum Products Pricing Template for PMS and Household Kerosene.

The situation is however different in Asaba, Delta State where the Department Of Petroleum Resources (DPR) was forced to seal up about six filling stations for selling above the official fuel pump price.

The operation which lasted for more than five hours saw the DPR personnel either ordering filling stations to reverse to the official pump price or a complete seal up.

At one of the filling stations, where the DPR officials discovered that they were selling the product at 100 Naira per litre, they ordered a total reversal to the government approved pump price of 86.50 Naira.

The officials gave out their numbers to customers waiting to buy fuel, urging them to put a call across if the fuel station defaults either by reversing to the unofficial price or if they stop selling the product.

According to the DPR, a call came through from an anonymous caller alleging that the filling station had ignored the instruction.

However, the Acting Manager of the filling station declined speaking to Channels Television but claimed the allegation was false.

As the exercise continues to other places in the state, the DPR has vowed that any marketer found wanting will be dealt with severely. (NAN/Channels TV)