DPR sanctions 15 filling stations in Bauchi over breach of safety rules

The Bauchi office of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said it had sanctioned no fewer than 15 filling stations for failure to comply with safety regulations.

Malam Abdullahi Iliyasu, the DPR Operations Controller stated this in an interview with our reporter on Thursday in Bauchi.

He said the deployment of safety facilities at Filling Stations like fire extinguishers, sand buckets and other relevant safety instruments, was mandatory, adding that failure to provide same attracted sanctions.

He said the affected filling stations were compelled to provide the safety measures, apart from the fines they were made to pay for default, saying that the department would no longer condone violation of safety rules in the industry.

Meanwhile, Iliyasu said all the 600 existing filling stations in the state had since complied with the current pump price of N125 per liter of premium motor spirit.

He explained that a recent directive from the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had mandated filling stations to sell the commodity at either N125 or N123.5 per litre owing to the global fall in prices of petroleum products.

According to him, DPR has achieved 100 per cent compliance level on the new price of the commodity, adding that the cooperation of Independent Petroleum Marketers towards ensuring the implementation of the new pump price, is commendable.

He said Bauchi received its supplies from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Depot in Gombe, adding that the operations of lifting the commodity had been smooth.