Be cautious of fake news on ‘hike’ in petrol pump price — Agency

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has warned Nigerians against spreading a fake news that the federal government is planning to increase the price of petroleum products.

Alhaji Yusuf Shehu, the  Controller, Gusau NMDPRA Field Office, spoke on Wednesday at the routine surveillance on filling stations in Gusau.

“As we are all aware, a week ago there was serious queues in filling stations here in Gusau.

“That is why we came out on this operation to go round and check the filling stations.

“Usually, we got daily records of all the products supplied to the stations from the depot.

“One of our responsibilities is to go round and make sure that the product reached the destinations across the state,” Shehu said.

He said that about 90 per cent of the products supplied to filling stations from the depot had actually been delivered to filling stations.

“As you can see, the queues have reduced now and most of the stations visited have the product.

“We only noticed panic buying by the public because of the spread of fake news that have been circulating that the federal government is going to increase the pump price of the petrol,” he explained.

The controller called on the public to shun fake news as it has negative effect to the development of the society.

He appealed to marketers in the state to continue to comply with the federal government’s regulations on supply and sale of the commodity.