Lagos filling station ‘reluctantly’ begin sale of fuel at N87

Filling stations in Lagos are now selling petrol at the pump for N87 per litre, after initially sticking with the old price for about 24 hours after the federal government announced a N10 cut from N97 per litre.

After Sunday’s announcement by Diezani Alison-Maduekwe, the minister petroleum resources, many filling stations in Lagos refused to comply.

On Monday, only NNPC Mega Station at Falomo, Ikoyi, sold at the new price.

The managers of defaulting filling stations said they had old stock purchased at the old rate, expressing their reluctance in shifting to the new price.

Some others blamed their inability to align with the new price due to the absence of their engineers who would adjust their dispensing machines to fit the price.

However, a visit by TheCable to some of the filling stations in Lagos, including some who defaulted on Monday, revealed that all have now adopted the new price.

At MRS Ojota, the engineers of the filling station had just finished adjusting the machine to the new price when our correspondent got there.

The attendant and engineer who spoke with TheCable said they had implemented the new price before the adjustment was done.

“We now sell for N87, and we have been doing that even before this (pointing to a particular dispensing machine) was adjusted,” he said.

Many other filling stations on Ikorodu road – from Onipanu, Ojota, Ikorodu and even Ikeja – now sell at N87 per litre.

An attendant at a Total filling station told TheCable off records that the station was forced to sell at the new price when most customers refused to buy at the old price.

“A lot of customers had come here and left immediately without buying. Once they asked how much we sold for and we said N97, they turned back, saying a nearby station was selling for N87,” she said.

“It got quite annoying at some point when they start raining abuses on me, as it I was the one who made the decision not to effect the new price.

“We switched to N87 when our sales dropped drastically. My boss had to implement the new price for fear of losing all our loyal customers.”

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had earlier threatened to sanction those who fail to make the necessary adjustment as directed by the federal government.

Earliero on Monday,  the ex-depot price of fuel – the actual cost of petrol on arrival in Nigeria from country of importation – was also reduced from N81.51 to N77.66 per litre.