Some filling stations in Lagos yesterday sold a litre of sold the premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol, for N220, even though they displayed the regulated N165 a litre on their pumps.
Checks at several filling stations across the metropolis showed that the product was sold above the regulated price.
The decision to continue to regulate the pump price of petrol has cost the nation about N1.27 trillion since the beginning of the year.
Recently, the price of the product increased on the insistence of oil marketers that transportation costs for the commodity had skyrocketed due to a spike in diesel price.
For you to load a litre of petrol, you will pay N162. You will have to add the cost of transportation, which is between N6 and N8, depending on the distance within Lagos. If it is outside Lagos, it is much more than that,” the Chairman of Lagos Satellite Depot of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Akin Akinrinade, had said.
“Also, some others have shut down services.”
While some petrol stations are selling, some shut services in Lagos and Abuja, reducing the number of available stations dispensing petrol to commuters.
Checks around the city yesterday showed that G and G petrol station at Ogba sold petrol for N220 a litre, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) filling station in the same area sold the product at N180 a litre.
Over the weekend, at Rosebol petrol station at Ipaja, petrol was N180 a litre and N190 at Mao filling station at Kola.
Ardova filling station at Ayobo dispensed the product at N200, while the company’s filling station at 21 Road, Festac Town, sold the product at a regulated price of N165 a litre.
At MRS filling station on 6th Avenue in Festac, in the past few weeks, the product has been between N175 and N185 a litre.
On Lekki Expressway, the pump price stood between N180 and N200 per litre at Ardova and MRS filling stations.
A motorist who, on Friday, bought petrol at N200 per litre at Remdabson in Ikorodu, said he waited for more than five hours in the rain to fuel his vehicle.
At One Man Village in Nasarawa State, petrol stations sold the product at N230 per litre.
Although some stations sold petrol at N165 a litre in Abuja, others sold the product at N235 a litre.
In Lugbe, AMAC as well as Pykassa filing stations sold petrol at between N230 and N235 per litre.
Petrol sold for N190 per litre at Sola Dola filling station at Ajilosun in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti Stat capital. At another filling station at Similolu in Ado-Ekiti, the product was sold for N200.