In a random survey carried out by Nigerian Tribune in Lagos on the incidence of false and/or fraudulent metering, it was discovered that most petrol stations’ officials engaged in this illegal act.
Unsuspecting Nigerians lost billions of naira on a daily basis to this sharp practice at petrol stations with little efforts to checkmate this by concerned authorities. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) statistics, Nigerians consume over 35 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) daily.
An industry watcher disclosed that digital pumps are very simple to manipulate and most Nigerians have fallen victims to false metering one way or the other.
A former fuel attendant, Tobiloba Adewale, told Nigerian Tribune on Sunday that it was a normal practice to sell N700 worth of petrol as N1,000 and N1,500 worth for N2,000. He said poor remuneration package and lack of job security were the reasons the sharp practice to strive in the country.
According to him, “I drove here (a petrol station on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway) to buy petrol of N2,000 worth but being an ‘experienced’ ex-attendant, I went to the machine to double-check what was actually dispensed.”
Adewale said trouble broke out when he realised that petrol of N1,400 was actually dispensed instead of the N2,000 worth,” he requested.
Reacting to how one can double-check; he said “the most vulnerable fuel pumps are the programmable ones.
A fuel attendant will programme N700 in place of N1,000 usually by the side of the machine and the machine will display N1,000 at the front deceiving unsuspecting customers that it actually dispensed petrol of N1,000 worth.
“This sharp practice has been going on for years, because I was an attendant three years ago. I was taught how to manipulate these machines by my supervisor to whom I must give ‘returns’.”
A dealer at a petrol station, who preferred anonymity, disclosed that officials of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) usually paid them unscheduled visits in order to apprehend or seal any station found wanting, saying such officials sometime demanded for bribes in order to turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings. “If you refused to settle when you are caught, your station will be sealed off and necessary penalties must be paid to avoid revocation of licence,” he said.
However, the supervisor of a petrol station on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, who also pleaded anonymity argued that petrol station attendants were not well paid and many of them married men and women with varying degrees of responsibilities towards their families.
“To be honest, an average fuel attendant earns between N8,000 and N12,000 as salary. If you doubt me, you can investigate it yourself. How do you expect that to be sufficient for them? It is impossible. So there is need to look for alternative source of income without [engaging in] robbery,” he said.
According to a source in the DPR, Lagos Office, who preferred not to be mentioned, the agency was putting
everything in place to ensure Nigerians were given what they actually paid for. “We actually carry out on-the-spot-check time-to-time and if we found anybody wanting, we seal off the machine or the station as the case may be. We have our own standard measuring-can to detect either under-dispensing or over-dispensing.”
“Sometimes, they over-dispense ignorantly and we correct them, but in case of under-dispensing, we seal off the meter until they call their engineers to rectify the problem. We still go back to check if that has been actually done,” he concluded.
Efforts to get reactions from Zonal Operational Controller, DPR Lagos, Mr Koko, proved abortive as call put forward to his phone was not answered.
Meanwhile, Nigerians are calling on the House of Representatives to extend the ongoing probe in the downstream sector to the activities of petrol station dealers with respect to under-dispensing in order to cleanse the sector of every irregularity.
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