ALERT: NNPC station in bribe-for-fuel scandal

A filling station belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is currently selling petrol – but only to consumers who are willing to hand out a bribe, ranging from N200 to N1,000.

As of 5:15pm pm on Saturday when this report was filed in, the filling station, located exactly opposite the First Bank on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, Lagos, left the legitimate entry permanently closed and instead sold fuel to motorists entering through the exit way.

The development comes only four days after Ibe Kachikwu, group managing director of NNPC, delivered a rallying cry to the country, and particularly called for an NNPC that is “united in the solution to this problem.”

At 2:45pm when TheCable arrived at the filling station, attendants sold fuel to two classes of people: those legitimately queued up in front of the entryway, and those who paid bribes to enter through the exit.

While the legitimate queue was slower as there were 20 t0 30 cars in it at any particular time, the illegal queue was faster and there was never a time when more than four cars were in it.

But just before 3:30pm, the filling station closed the legitimate entry and began selling fuel only to those paying bribes and entering the station through the exit. When some of those in the legitimate queue sought answers, an attendant dismissively told them: “We have closed.”

Despite repeated appeals from consumers in the legitimate queue, the attendants became more blatant in perpetrating their illegality, in fact allowing cars stuffed with 25-litre and 50-litre jerry cans into the premises.

The cars bearing the cans all parked in front of the Ecobank located inside the filling station, and then advanced towards the fuel pump one after the other, on the orders of a man addressed as “Yusuf”, who appeared to be the manager with the way he dished out instructions to attendants.

Yusuf, donning white-and-blue polo on a black pair of trousers, was also the one who instructed the touts manning the gate on whom they opened the gate for, and whom they shut it at.

The attendant who sold the fuel was continuously addressed as Oosa (meaning Oracle). Spotting a red NNPC-branded polo shirt, Oosa teamed up with street urchins numbering four or five to exploit fuel consumers, even those who entered through the legal way.

For example, a motorist bought fuel that amounted to N5,734; but after handing N6,000 to Oosa, his balance was not returned despite his protestations, which lasted almost five minutes.

Another consumer, whose car was nearest to the gate when it was shut, bitterly expressed his disappointment to TheCable, saying: “Can you see what is going on? We, the masses, will be blaming the government for our sufferings. We will be blaming Jonathan, blaming Buhari.

“But how can this country progress when we, the people, are so overwhelmed by our desperation to make money? You can imagine the corrupt people at NNPC Oregun, locking out people who are gently in a queue and selling fuel to people paying them bribes! This is terrible! So shameful! Those DPR people who make noise up and down, I hope they get hold of these corrupt elements and deal with them.”

At 5:20pm when TheCable left the venue, the acts of bribery were still ongoing.

The second NNPC on Kudirat Abiola Way – the one located directly beside Guaranty Trust Bank (and opposite Keystone Bank) – was also selling fuel, but TheCable could not ascertain the conditions of sale.