By Richards Adeniyi
Between December 2017 and February 2018, about 162 trucks containing eight million litres of petrol supplied by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as intervention products were diverted away from their original destination service stations across Nigeria, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) recently disclosed.
The DPR stated shortly after all its controllers met with its Director, Mr. Mordecai Ladan, in Abuja on the current petrol scarcity experienced in cities across the country, that its Special Intelligence Unit (SPU) created to monitor the situation made this discovery.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, DPR’s Public Relations Officer for its Abuja office, Mr. Mohammed Saidu, stated that the SPU discovered that most of the volumes of petrol were diverted from the Kano Depot of the NNPC.
According to him, one petroleum products marketer – A.Y Maikifi, alone diverted 115 trucks between December 2017 and January 2018.
He explained that the marketer has been fined N1.2 billion for such infraction, while the DPR has realised about N12 million from the gradual payments of its fine to other culpable marketers.
He further explained: “These give DPR a lot of concerns and that was why DPR gathered all the controllers across the country to make sure they further strategise and give clear cut directives as to how they should go about uncovering these sharp practices.
“The products so far diverted were from Kano NNPC depot where one marketer, A.Y Maikifi diverted 115 trucks between December 2017 and January 2018 and you could see that it was the peak of the crisis.
Saidu noted that: “One of the reasons DPR called for a meeting of all the operations controllers across the country was to make sure each of them will replicate this intelligence unit and that will go a long way in helping the DPR.
On what will happen to the marketers found culpable, Saidu said: “All the marketers that have been found culpable have been fined N275 per litre (of product diverted). For instance, AYM Maikiffi has been fined N1.2 billion and he must pay because he could not account for the product.
“There are smaller marketers that have since commenced payment of their own. We have realised over N12 million from marketers who have come forward to accept they have diverted and are willing to pay the fine. Some have paid up to 50 per cent while some are still pleading but until they finished payment DPR will not lift the fine.”