Port Harcourt, Sept. 1, 2023: Petroleum Products Retail Association of Nigeria (PETRON) said it will continue to ensure an uncompromised process in the distribution of petroleum products in retail outlets.
Mr Francis Dimkpa, Chairman, Rivers Chapter of the body gave the assurance on Friday in Port Harcourt while reacting to a trending video showing pump attendants caught in an act of cheating.
He said that as part of efforts to unravel the perpetrators in the viral video, the union had set up a surveillance team in collaboration with the Rivers State Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources.
“Upon conclusion on investigation, it was gathered that the entire scenario was actually a deliberate action by two pump attendants in one of the Oando outlets newly acquired by NNPC (not an NNPC Mega Station) in Port Harcourt.
“The alleged pump attendants had resorted to cheating both management and customers of the station by shortchanging them,” he said.
Dimkpa also noted that the management of alleged station have relieved the culprits of their jobs.
“Henceforth, we have mandated our team to increase survivance, focusing more on the activities of pump attendants because we cannot afford to allow some greedy staff continue to cheat our customers and even our stations.
“We are so far, satisfied with efforts to the state government through the commissioner for Energy and Natural Resources and the Nigerian Police for their prompt interventions.
“We also want to assure the public the dealer in the alleged fuel station had no hand in all of the anomalies especially seeing that the culprits have since been dismissed by the station’s management,” he said.
Meanwhile, a staff in the alleged NNPC outlet who pleaded anonymity had denied the allegation attributing d anomaly to faulty pump norsle on the dispense metres, she however, confirmed dismissal of indicated staff.
Some customers have called for more stringent penalties for retail stations contravening stipulated operational guidelines.
