Femi Ogbonnikan In Abeokuta
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) wednesday descended on, and sealed a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) affiliate filling station at Apomu near Ifo, Ogun State for safety lapses.
The monitoring team led by Operations Controller, Abeokuta Field Office, Muinat Bello-Zagi, also sealed a fuel pump at DE Champion filling station, Papalanto, for under-dispensing.
It was gathered that the inspection was a continuous exercise which began on Tuesday as part of DPR routine check on dispensing measures, in terms of quality, quantity as well as safety standard.
Bello-Zagi explained that there was sale of alcohol at the NNPC station and cohabitation with a bar. The DPR boss added that Fire extinguishers at the station had expired and unservicable, while the sand bucket has no sand.
Despite pleas by the station manager to reopen the sealed station for full operations, the supervision team led by Bello-Zagi rebuffed and ordered the sealing of the NNPC, saying “we can unseal it in less than 24 hours if issues observed are properly addressed.â€
“The NNPC affiliate station was sealed for safety lapses. Why did we seal it? There was no meant to be sale of alcohol in the station. The fire extinguishers have all expired. The sand buckets were without sand. Then we saw some cars being fueled without those cars switching off their ignitions.
“They have to address all those lapses before we can unseal the station. We want everybody who comes to the filling stations goes back home safely,†Bello-Zagi who spoke with our reporter, said.
She disclosed that about 35 filling stations were visited during the two-day inspection across Ogun State.
Contrary to the reported fuel queues resurfacing in some cities in Nigeria, Bello-Zagi said filling stations were selling without queues at the stations inspected.
