Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has moved to end the recent long queues at petrol stations in the state over rumours of possible hike in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) also know as petrol.

The Governor dispatched Abia State Commissioner for Petroleum, Barr Chizuru Kanu, to NNPC headquarters in Abuja to seek the corporation’s support to send more products to the state to satisfy existing demands and stave off illegal price hikes by dealers.

The Commissioner who met with the Executive Director (Commercial) of NNPC, Sir Billy Okechukwu Okoye, at the NNPC towers Abuja received assurances that the corporation will increase product deliveries to the state from Monday to mop up excess demands and force prices down to the official rate of N145/litre.

The NNPC Director assured that there is no plan to increase the pump price of petroleum products and informed the Commissioner of the corporation’s commencement of processes to feed the Osisioma Depot in Abia State with Petroleum products, particularly PMS, from Monday and keep the flow steady throughout the Yuletide season.

Sir Okoye harped on the need to protect the pipelines from the activities of vandals to avoid product losses and detailed out the trucks of PMS already dispatched from Port Harcourt depot to the major cities of Aba and Umuahia by today.

The Commissioner assured the NNPC Director of the willingness of the State Government to deepen the partnership between the state and NNPC to ensure that petroleum products needs of the industries in the state and individual consumers are promptly served. He also promised to publish the details of the expected deliveries and the destinations within the state.

According to the Commissioner, “Our state has launched an ambitious effort to increase production of made in Aba brands and support indigenous entrepreneurs. These efforts will definitely suffer if we experience reduced petroleum products availability, especially as we approach the Yuletide season with its associated spike in demands for our locally manufactured products. We therefore need support from NNPC to achieve our goals of contributing more to the gross domestic product of Nigeria.”

•Source: Abia Ministry of Information.

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