By Andy Akeni/Ifeanyi Uwagwu
With the frequent rising cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, which has plunged Nigerians deeper into far reaching economic woes, most petrol stations are now short-changing unsuspecting customers with under-dispensing of what they paid for.
The Pointer, yesterday, gathered that some of the petrol stations are in the habit of cheating customers by under-dispensing fuel and adjusting of metres just to cheat buyers.
At a popular Petrol Station, located on Okpanam Road, just by the Midwifery junction Asaba where a litre of petrol is being dispensed for N1,100, a customer paid N16,600 for a 16 litres of fuel, but after dispensing, the pump read 15.09 litres, a deficit of 0.91 litres, which translated to N1,001.
When quizzed about the deficit, the fuel attendant expressed ignorance, stating that she was not responsible for whatever deficit the pump had registered.
“I am just a fuel attendant, not the manager or an engineer that can explain how the pumps work, my job is to receive money from customers and dispense fuel to them”, she fired back.
Efforts to reach a superior officer at the station proved abortive.
While it is the duty of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to regulate and ensure the conformity of petrol stations to set standards, it is unclear if the body in the state has inspected stations and ensured compliance for Deltans to get value for their money.
Also, some of the filing stations on Nnebisi road in Asaba, the Delta State capital are not left out as the same scenario is playing out daily with customers not knowing what to do as a result of harsh reply from the pump attendants with the government doing nothing to curb it.
Nigerians are now between the devil and the deep blue of no return. It is disheartening that after paying so much for a litre of fuel, you get under-dispensed by the greedy marketers.
Speaking to newsmen, yesterday, some customers, among whom were; Mr. David Osifa, Emeka Ogwu and Mr. Ovie Akpevwe lamented the situation, calling on the government to have pity on Nigerians and sanction the stations that were bent on strangulating Nigerians.
According to them “We blame the government for everything, the government keeps increasing pump price at will while filing stations are there adjusting metres, under-dispensing and cheating members of the public without any sanction”
“We are appealing to the Federal Government in particular to monitor stations and stop these sharp practices as Nigerians are not finding it easy anymore”
