Petroleum industry regulator pledges to go after ‘black marketers’ in Kogi

As the Country battles with the high cost of fuel and its scarcity, Ortis Ogbe Godwin, Operations Controller Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in Kogi State, has advised the petrol marketers to desist from black market activities, selling fuel to bootleggers.

Godwin stated this when a Crew of Journalists in Lokoja, Kogi State Capital, visited him in his office, adding that even if there was any reason that prompted reserving fuel for a particular customer, they (petrol marketers) had to get approval from the office to do that, just as he said, “anything short of that its illegal.”

He said, “We want to appeal to the general public also to report such nefarious activities to the office of Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) so that we can take appropriate actions and sanction such erring filling station.

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“You can’t be sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government when you have been given the liberty to sell at the buying price as the case may be because the market is now a free market yet you are still cutting corners in the public. It is unacceptable. So if you are caught, definitely GPU go in for it.

“I want to say that without any pre-validation that the office has not been compromising in any way. I make bold to say that because of it in a situation where the office has been collecting money, the marketers giving bribe, what are they bribing for. If you are doing the right thing what are you bribing for?

And I am very strict when it comes to issues of this magnitude. I don’t have friend .Like I said, I want to sleep and I don’t want that kind of thing that will make me not to sleep for that reason I can only vouch for myself because I am the head , but my men can’t vouch though I have not caught them and they have not reported anything to me. They know my body language, so for that, it will not be compromised.”